


Time To Be Bled

by RoadrunnerGER



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s01e06 Countrycide, Missing Scene, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 47,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoadrunnerGER/pseuds/RoadrunnerGER
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ianto side of Countrycide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is my first longer Torchwood story. I loved Countrycide "at first watch," and there are many gaps to fill, and so much to explore that I simply HAD to write about it. Please enjoy!

**Ch 1 - Arrival**

 

  “Brain fried tonight through misuse… through misuse, through misuse. You can’t avoid static abuse… Abuse, abuse,” Ellie Johnson sang to the music from her radio as she drove along a narrow road through the hills of the Brecon Beacons. It was the kind of music her father did not like at all as it was loud with lots of drums and vibrating basses.

  Actually the whole car vibrated from the sound coming from the speakers when _The Automatic_ sang their _Monster_.

  She was in the right mood for hard, numbing music. Only four hours, twenty three minutes and… eight, nine, ten seconds ago she split up with her boyfriend. Finding him in their own bed with a long legged redhead was shocking to say the least. Hit by Ellie’s pepper spray she would have red eyes for the next days, too, along with other red parts.

  And her unfaithful boyfriend flew out of her flat together with his clothes… before he could put them on. Ellie just had grabbed his family jewels with one hand, his clothes with the other and shoved him out of the front door.

  Yeah, Ellie was in the mood for hard rock.

  She got right into it, singing out loud, “Without these pills you’re let loose… You’re let loose, you’re let loose. Take off, get out, no excuse… No excuse, no excuse!”

  The drums thundered through her small car and the chorus started _What’s that coming…_

  That was when her mobile phone rang. A little clumsily as she had to concentrate on driving she fished the phone from the passenger’s seat and answered the call.

_…over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster?_

  “Oh, hi, Dad,” Ellie said and listened for his answer, but it was not really clear. It crackled in the line, and the loud music did not help either, but she thought she understood what he was asking.

_What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster?_

  “Dad? I don’t know, hour and a half, tops. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I can’t hear you. The signal’s going.”

  One moment she spoke with her father and the next, the line was dead.

  _Great. Just a few miles into the Beacons and it’s as if you’re at the end of the world._

  So she threw the useless phone on the passenger seat and continued driving. The night was pitch black and the headlights did not penetrate the dark very far.

  Suddenly something appeared in the beams of the headlights that should not be there. A figure lay in the road ahead and Ellie jammed on the breaks. So there she sat in her car, listening to a guitar solo, and staring at the something on the asphalt that looked suspiciously like a human body in jeans and sweater.

  _An accident?_ Ellie wondered. _If the person is injured I’m the only one here who could help._

  Hesitantly she exited the car and pulled a baseball bat from under her driver’s seat. Just in case. The band singing once more about a monster coming over the hill did not exactly help to reassure her. Slowly she approached the figure.

  “Hello? Are you alright?”

  She got no answer and so she tentatively prodded the figure with the baseball bat. When nothing happened she pushed again and the head rolled to the side. Now Ellie could see that it was not a head at all but a football.

  _A trap!_

  Suddenly the music stopped.

  Ellie whipped around, swinging the baseball bat.

  The beams of the headlight startled her, leaving her feeling exposed like a fish in a bowl.

  _Oh, no! No, no!_

  As fast as her high heels allowed she tottered the way back to her car, the bat raised, ready to hit anyone who came near her. But when she approached the car she heard a wheezing sound and saw with horror that the right rear tire was loosing air. It was almost flat already.

  _Bloody hell!_

  Ellie jumped in her car and pulled the door shut, pressing the lock down. She would have to drive on the flat tire. Ellie did not want to think about what that would do to the car. All she could think about was that she had to get away from here.

  The problem dissolved as she reached for the key and found that it was not in the ignition anymore.

  Her heart dropped into her stomach where it beat frantically. She reached for her mobile phone and tried to get a connection.

  “Come on!” she whined desperately as the phone still did not work.

  Something thudded on the roof of the car. Metal creaked.

  “Leave me alone!” Ellie shrieked.

  But instead the driver’s door was unlocked with a chirp from her remote control keychain, and someone reached inside.

  Ellie screamed.

 

xXx

 

_Torchwood. Outside the government, beyond the police._  
Tracking down alien life on Earth and arming the human race against the future.  
The 21st century is when everything changes.  
And you've got to be ready.  
  


xXx

 

  He had no idea why he was so nervous. Though, finally, it was something other than the aching emptiness he had felt for so long. The unfortunate fact that it had been replaced by anxiety was unpleasant to say the least.

  Staring straight ahead out of the windshield of Torchwood’s black stealth SUV Ianto Jones was daydreaming, remembering better times. He stifled a sigh to avoid reminding his colleagues of his mere presence. As he was flanked by two of them, Toshiko Sato on his left side, Gwen Cooper on his right, that was a difficult task.

  But he should not complain about his co-workers, he knew that. Actually he was lucky that he still had a job after the stunt he pulled just a few weeks ago. When he first came to Torchwood One, so long ago in London, his recruiter had told him that Torchwood would not be a job you quit.

  How true were those words.

  Having survived the destruction of Torchwood One Ianto had been eager to join Torchwood Three in Cardiff. The branch had been considered a renegade organization ever since it had been taken over by Captain Jack Harkness at the turn of the Millennium, but Ianto had not cared. He had been happy to serve in his position as receptionist as it provided him with a way to keep Lisa alive…

  Choking on the air he breathed Ianto recalled her last day on earth. It could have been his last day as well, either by her hand or Jack’s. His memories were so vivid that he could smell the smoke and feel the gun’s muzzle on the back of his head, the hand that clawed in his hair. A hard lump formed in his gut.

  That day he had seen another side of Jack Harkness, a scary side.

  “I hate the countryside,” Owen Harper said out of the blue. “It’s dirty, unhygienic. And what is that smell?”

  “That would be grass,” Gwen retorted.

  Turning in his seat to face her Owen spat, “It’s disgusting.”

  Owen had aimed his remark at Gwen, but when he bent over to face the people in the backseat Ianto had the strange feeling as if he looked directly at him and his words hit their mark.

  _It’s disgusting._

  In Ianto’s mind, combined with the look he never got, it changed to _he’s disgusting_ and he silently had to agree with his colleague.

  His stupidity could have gotten them all killed, but the horrible truth was that, being in the same situation again, he probably would do just the same.

  That thought scared him.

  When would they arrive wherever they were going? Ianto had packed the tents and a lot of other stuff in the SUV and he already dreaded hearing what Owen would say when he realized that they were going to camp out here. The hills were green, covered with grass and little higher vegetation. Ianto knew the Brecon Beacons. Memories of his grandfather were woken by the sight of the peaks. His grandfather had lived in the mountain range. He was rooted to the landscape which he always talked lovingly about, often using the Welsh language, calling the mountains the Bannau Brycheiniog. Grandfather Jones had taught his son and grandson Welsh and Ianto was proud of that special part of his heritage.

  The trip appeared to be for fun, but they all knew that something strange and probably dangerous awaited them.

  _No illusions_. Ianto knew exactly why he was here. Accompanying the team on this mission was not a reward for good work, it was not recognition of his efforts, and it was not even the sheer necessity of him working for the team. Well, maybe the latter. It was a miracle that Ianto was still part of Torchwood after what he had done, but he had to pay a price.

  They kept him in purgatory.

  He was neither suspected nor trusted. They treated him professionally but not friendly. _Plain and simple bringing me along is meant to degrade me by requiring me to supply them with everything they might miss out here._

  _Like decent food._

  Ianto had heard the first complaints a while ago, but there was nothing he could do as long as they were still driving. So he reacted at once when he spotted a car and trailer.

  “Why don’t we stop there and have lunch?” he asked.

  “Yeah, they seem to have burgers,” Owen said.

  So Jack pulled the SUV over and they all got out of the car. As there was no stand-up bistro table provided for customers they all gathered around the bonnet of their car, except for Ianto who went to get them something to eat.

  Briefly Ianto wondered why the name of the snack stand, painted on the side of the trailer, was _Last Stop_. As if there was _anything_ around here. They were in the middle of nowhere in the National Park of Brecon Beacons. So it was the last stop before what?

  He could hear the others discuss. From what he could understand they had not bothered to wait for him before starting the meeting. _Nor would I expect them to. I’m not expected to participate, only to serve and stay out of the way._

  “Seventeen disappearances within the last five months. Police are clueless,” Jack just explained.

  “Now there’s a surprise,” Owen snorted. Grinning he raised his hands in defence as he turned to Gwen. “No offence, PC Cooper.”

  She just gave him a wry grin and turned her attention back to Jack.

  Moving his finger over the map spread over the hood, searching the right area, Jack told them, “The last known whereabouts of each one is somewhere around here.”

  “All within a twenty miles radius,” Toshiko mused.

  “Anything else linking them?” Gwen wanted to know.

  Readily Jack gave her more information, “None of the bodies has ever been found. These people just fell off the radar. No patterns in age, sex, race… One minute they’re here, the next… pfft,” he made a whistling sound through his teeth, “gone.”

  “The rift doesn’t spread out that far, does it?” Gwen asked.

  _Who knows,_ Ianto thought. _We can hardly do more about the rift than what Torchwood is supposed to do, keep an eye on it and deal with whatever might come through it._

  He saw Owen march away from the others, toward the road, stretching his tired limbs. The way he was rolling his shoulders, his whole stance, told Ianto that the doctor was feeling quite uncomfortable.

  “We don’t know that much about the rift to be certain,” Jack answered Gwen’s question. “And it’s increasing in activity all the time.”

  “Oh, c’mon,” Owen exclaimed with a sweeping gesture at the wide, open countryside around them. “Aliens aren’t gonna bother hanging round out here! Probably some sort of weird suicide club with people choosing the same spot to end it all.”

  Out of the corner of his eye Ianto noticed movement and saw the man behind the counter hold up the ordered cheeseburgers. Exchanging bills for the food Ianto walked first to Owen.

  “Oh, God knows, if I had to spend too long up here, I’d want to top myself.”

  “Here you go,” Ianto said to the ranting medic, pushing a burger into his hands. “Careful, they’re hot.”

  When Ianto walked over to the others something on the periphery of his vision caught his attention. Owen shook his hand, holding the burger with just his fingertips. Why the medic pulled the glove off his hand because the burger was hot was beyond Ianto.

  “Sure you don’t want anything, Tosh?” he asked his colleague.

  “Really sure,” she replied pointedly. “A friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places.”

  His burger raised halfway Ianto stopped as did Owen and Gwen. Jack simply put his burger down on the bonnet of the car before he even tried it. After a moment’s thought Ianto bit into his cheeseburger. He never had problems with them so he figured that the chances of catching anything were slim. The burger was surprisingly good, but then, these cheap, grungy little roadside stands often had better food than you could find in any restaurant.

  “We’ll start with the most recent victim, Ellie Johnson,” Jack declared. “We last have record of her making a phone call. She dropped out of signal mid-call…” He moved his fingertip over a region on the map. “The coverage map has her someplace about… here,” he pinned the spot with his finger. Munching on her burger Gwen nodded in rhythm with his words.

  Ianto followed Jack’s every move and word attentively. Having loaded their equipment into the boot of the SUV Ianto now had a very good idea of what their leader had in mind. He was going to set up a base somewhere close to the area where the people had vanished.

  “Looks as good a place as any to set up camp,” Jack said cheerfully.

  _There he goes, ruining Owen’s illusions,_ Ianto thought. He had expected Jack’s move, but he still was surprised and amused by Owen’s reaction to it. Ianto had to fight not to burst out with laughter as he saw the medic freeze in raising his cheeseburger, his mouth open wide to finally take a first bite and his eyes rolling up to stare at the captain in shock.

  “Sorry. Did you say **_camp_**?” Owen panted, his characteristic dialect giving his voice an involuntary whine.

  Jack smirked.

  It was that kind of smirk that told Ianto that Jack knew exactly what he did to Owen and enjoyed it. It was the notorious smirk of Jack Harkness that made people aware of his charismatic personality. It was the smirk that made Ianto wish that it would acknowledge his existence in some way.

  Having finished his burger Ianto started to collect the remains of his colleagues’ meals, the paper and the coffee cups, and dispose of them in the dustbin of the snack stand. Then he returned to their SUV and made himself invisible again.

 

tbc…


	2. Just a bit of fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not oblivious to the fact that most of us know this episode by heart, but actually that’s why I wrote this. I simply wanted to see my favourite episode in writing, adding some depth to it and filling its gaps. I hope you're enjoying it.

  It was only a fifteen-minute drive from the snack stand to Ellie Johnson’s last known location. Beside the road team Torchwood found a good place to set up the camp and they started to unload the SUV.

  Ianto began to unpack the tent and connected the bars with each other. It was a simple task of making the right connections and so it did not take long for him to set the tent up. Once it was standing he worked on the ropes securing it. Right beside his tent Gwen and Tosh assembled theirs and when Ianto squatted down to put a peg in the ground he noticed Owen and Jack carry another big sack to the free space beside the first two. The medic was loudly complaining about their accommodations for all to hear.

  “What’s the matter with a hotel?” he grumbled.

  “People are going missing round here,” Jack replied. “Do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?”

  Owen snorted. “Oh, ‘cause sleeping outside is gonna be a lot safer.”

  “No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness!”

  Ianto smirked to himself as he heard Jack tease Owen, using this unique dry tone of his that made Ianto think that Jack could only wonder about his co-workers. _It’s as if Jack’s completely incredulous and enthusiastic about camping. As if he was doing it for the first time._

  The captain let his end of the load drop and Owen was on his own. On his way to the other side of the tent Ianto watched his colleagues furtively. Toshiko was hammering in a tent peg while Owen stood helplessly beside the bag, stepping from one foot to the other, uncertain where to get started.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?” Owen shouted.

  Ianto saw Toshiko straighten up and heard her taunt the young medic, “Need a hand getting it up, Owen?”

  It was all Ianto could do not to laugh. He was not certain that she had not intended the double entendre, but he knew how Owen would most likely react to her remark. He saw Owen turn to her.

  “If I did… I wouldn’t ask _you_.”

  _Wham!_ Ianto could almost physically feel Toshiko’s hurt. He saw her go away to do something else, somewhere further away from Owen. Ianto knew the expression Owen wore, the medic was not even aware that he had hurt his colleague. He seldom noticed. Whenever he teased or mocked Ianto he did not fail to put him down, too.

  _Well, it’s not as if you’ve ever shown them that your skills extend beyond tidying up, collecting the dry cleaning, and making coffee,_ Ianto thought and hammered on the tent peg. _So it’s little wonder Owen sees you as nothing more than a butler and a teaboy. You asked for the job, now you’ve got to put up with it._ Even though Ianto knew that he contributed an important part to the team he could not deny that Owen’s jibes left emotional stab wounds.  Pounding harder on the stake, he thought, _Still, taunting the help is entirely inappropriate._

  With this last tent peg his shelter was finished. So Ianto put the hammer back in the box where he had taken it from and went to the SUV to get more equipment out. On his way back he saw Owen kick in frustration at the heap of bars, canvas, and rope to his feet.

  _He’ll never get it upright by mistreating it with his feet,_ Ianto thought and put the folding bed and table down. Two more times he went to the car to transport their gear to the tents. Glancing at Owen he saw that the medic had at least freed the tent from its bag. Ianto had to bite back a smirk. _Owen has a tendency to treat me like I’m a fixture, part of the Hub’s furnishings, and back at the Hub, I suppose that’s alright. After all, my job there is essentially to look after them, make the coffee, order pizza or Chinese takeaway when they are working late, clean up after them, and feed Myfanwy and the weevils. But out here, roughing it as we are, well, I would be perfectly willing to help our talented, and oh so highly regarded doctor set up his tent, but that would require him to ask first, and I’m pretty sure that he’d rather bite off his tongue than admit he was needing help._

  As he went to the already standing tent Ianto heard Owen rant about missing pieces and remarked dryly, “No, I checked.” Then he vanished into the tent where he had a look at the bags and cases Jack had brought there. He was searching for their supplies and the camping stove and kettle. Ianto could almost hear the others, _wish we had coffee_ , _the thermos is empty_. Well, he would be able to solve _that_ problem, once more proving that he was just the teaboy.

  Rummaging around inside of the tent Ianto was glad to have escaped his team-mates for a moment. There were times when he could hardly bear their looks at him. For the same reason he had been rather glad when they did not pay much attention to him while chasing for bad fairies.

  _It must’ve been a hard case, though,_ he thought as he spooned coffee into the filter. _Gwen wouldn’t speak to Jack for days. Tosh and Owen also were angry with him. No one said exactly what happened, though. I had a good idea of what it might be, but it didn’t get confirmed until I faced him in his office. It was hard for Jack to bear. The decision he had to make was difficult and I can see why the others couldn’t understand him._

  He put the kettle on the burner and waited for the water to boil.

  _Not even my coffee could get a smile out of Jack, no joke, no innuendo. For days he worked like on auto pilot._

  The water was hot and it steamed when he poured it over the filter that sat on the big thermos. Slowly the coffee ran into the pot.

  _He needed to get it off his chest, needed someone to talk to. Gwen still was pouting and the mood among the team was wearing Jack down._ Ianto sighed. _Maybe that’s one more reason why we’re here now._

  Ianto knew that he could not hide in there forever and so he closed the thermos when it was full and went out again. Stepping out from under the tent’s entry he stopped in his tracks. He could not even tell what made him freeze on the spot, but goosebumps crawled down his spine. Ianto looked up at the green hills surrounding them and a breeze ruffled his hair.

  Then the moment was over.

  Shaking his head Ianto tried to chase the chills away. He went back to where he had put down the equipment and started to unfold a camp bed. From where Gwen, Tosh and Owen were gathering around a table for a snack he heard Gwen challenge the others, “Oh, c’mon. It’s just a bit of fun! Who was the last person you snogged?”

  “You even sound like an eight-year-old,” Owen growled as he put two cases on top of each other to use them as stool. “Who the hell says _snog_?”

  While he was working Ianto glanced at Jack who sat sideways in the SUV’s driver’s seat. The captain seemed to be busy reading in a folder, but Ianto sensed his gaze on him. He often felt watched by him. Since the incident with Lisa the captain did not seem to ever let him out of sight. Distracted by the mixed emotions coursing through his body as he dropped his gaze under Jack’s furtive stare, Ianto did not really pay attention to what else his team-mates said.

  Carrying the camp bed over to the small group Ianto came just in time to hear Gwen pressuring Toshiko to spill the beans.

  “Owen,” Tosh said.

  “What?” Owen burst out.

  “Really?” Gwen doubted.

  Sighing inwardly Ianto put the bed down and sat down on it. _Do they really want to get that silly? Obviously they do._

  “Tosh, only in your dreams,” Owen said incredulously.

  “Three a.m., Christmas Eve,” Toshiko reminded him. “In front of the Millenium Centre, waiting for a cab. I had mistletoe.”

  “Christmas… Eve.” Owen stared at her with open wonder. “You’ve not had a snog since…?”

  “No.”

  _And I thought I’m pathetic,_ Ianto could not help but think. _So it’s possible to top a relationship with a half-upgraded Cyberwoman._

  “Well, lucky me, aye?” Owen retorted.

  “So, who was yours?” Toshiko turned to Owen.

  The medic’s brows knitted thoughtfully and he wagged his teaspoon at them before he said, “Gwen, actually.”

  That even made Jack look around from where he still sat sideways in the driver’s seat of the SUV, studying files and maps. Now he stood and walked over to the group.

  “Really?” Toshiko wondered, looking first at Gwen, then at Owen. “When was this?”

  Both Gwen and Owen hesitated to answer. Undecidedly she finally said, “It… was complicated.”

  “Didn’t take you long to get your feet under the table,” Toshiko remarked dryly.

  “What?”

  “So,” Toshiko tried to sound cheerful as she directed her question to Owen again, “was it just a kiss or...?”

  “Tosh,” Gwen stopped her brusquely. “Leave it.”

  Ianto sat seemingly disinterested on his cot, staring at his hands. Actually he did not miss a word of what his co-workers said and listened to them with rising interest. Who would have thought that they would get caught in such a discussion?

  Jack harboured similar thoughts and sat down with them. His presence already diffused their concentration off Toshiko and Owen.

  “Jack…” Owen turned to their captain.

  Determined to end the awkwardness he asked, “Are we including non-human life forms?”

  Ianto could not quite grasp the look he got together with those words. It was somewhat possessive and felt out of place. A chill ran down his spine.

  “Oh, you haven’t!” Gwen burst out laughing.

  But Jack only grinned mischievously.

  “You’re a sick man, Harkness,” Owen teased. “That is disgusting.”

  “I never know when he’s joking.”

  Ianto did not know either but he sensed that something in Jack’s look was weird.

  Jack allowed himself to breathe easier and laughed good-heartedly. _Gwen is smiling again, so my tactic must have worked._

  And that was when Ianto decided that he was fed up with Gwen’s silly game. After all, she had asked and he was part of the team, too… somehow.

  “It’s my turn, is it?” he asked and before anyone could answer he added, “It was Lisa.”

  “Ianto, I’m sorry,” Gwen said.

  He snorted. “Sorry she’s dead, or sorry you mentioned it?”

  “I… just didn’t think.”

  “You forgot.”

  It was a simple statement, but it was followed by silence. They all exchanged glances, no one said anything.

  “We should get some firewood,” Owen declared and nearly jumped up from his crates.

  “I’ll give you a hand,” Gwen agreed and almost ran after him as he strode off. She was glad to get away from the others for a moment. _I’m an idiot,_ she berated herself. _I forgot! How did I forget that easily? Why? It’s not as if I can’t feel compassion for her and Ianto. I do. I sort of pushed it to the edge of my mind and from there it slipped away._

  Owen was walking fast and Gwen had to speed up not to be left behind. When they reached the wood he slowed down and she took over the lead. Slapping branches away Gwen marched through the undergrowth, and her anger about her own thoughtlessness turned into rage at Owen.

  “Couldn’t you have kept that to yourself?” she snapped. With her _little bit of fun_ she obviously had touched on a sensitive subject with Toshiko and Gwen had to vent her anger.

  “What’s the matter?” Owen asked back. “You embarrassed?”

  “You’re such an arrogant shit sometimes, Owen!”

  “See, to my mind, that was a good kiss,” he defended himself. “It was borderline great, so great, so good, in fact, you’ve been avoiding me ever since.”

  “Ha! Country’s air’s making you delusional.”

  “How long did it last?” Owen prodded, seeking confirmation of his opinion in bare facts. “Ten seconds? And the things I can tell from that kiss…”

  “Oh, like?”

  “Like your sex life ain’t up to much.”

  Grabbing Owen by his jacket’s collar Gwen pushed the doctor against a tree. “You what?!”

  But Owen would not back down. “See, old Rhys makes the earth rumble, but he don’t make it move, does he?”

  “You’d better shut up before I lamp you one!”

  That was not exactly how Owen imagined physical contact between them. She still held his jacket so he grabbed her arms, twisted around and trapped her between the tree and his own body.

  “When was the last time you screwed all night?” he challenged. “When was the last time you came so hard and so long you forgot where you are?” They were so close that he could feel her breath on his face. Their hands found their ways into the other’s hair. “Doesn’t happen with him, does it? You’re too familiar.” Owen marvelled at her heavy breath and the look in her dark eyes. “Whereas you and me, we’re not cosy at all. We’d be _amazing_. And that scares the shit out of you.”

  There was barely room for the air to stir between them. Both of them breathed hard, clawing at the other’s hair. Cursing inwardly Gwen was almost ready to cave when she heard a twig snap. Her eyes flew open, scanning her surroundings. At first she saw nothing but Owen, but then, behind him in the undergrowth, she saw a figure move.

  “Someone… Someone’s watching us, through the trees,” she panted. “Fifty yards north. I just saw them move.”

  “You got your gun?” Owen asked, alerted. He felt the pressure of his own weapon against his back.

  “Yes,” Gwen confirmed, her hand sliding down in search for it.

  “You go to the left,” Owen panted. “I’ll go right.” It was so hard to break apart now. They were so close. Close enough to kiss. _Dammit!_ “Three, two, one.”

  Pulling out their weapons they dashed off in opposite directions, searching the wood.

  Aiming left.

  Aiming right.

  Suddenly they were standing in front of each other, their guns at the ready.

  “Bollocks!” Owen cursed. “How did we lose him?”

  Gwen had no idea. But looking over Owen’s shoulder she could see a lump on the ground, covered with a filthy blanket. Blood spatter.

  “Owen.”

  He spun around, his gun raised, aiming in the general direction of the thing left in the wood. Still aiming with their guns Gwen and Owen stalked closer. The medic picked up a stick to push away the dirty blanket.

  “Whoa!”

  Gasping and panting both backed away from their discovery. ****

xXx

 

  Toshiko stayed when Gwen and Owen left to get firewood, but she carefully avoided looking at Ianto or Jack.

  Jack on the other hand stared directly at Ianto and Ianto at him.

  _That look!_

  Ianto could not hold it for longer than a second and turned his head away from Jack. It was hot in purgatory. Hot and lonesome.

  Of course Ianto understood why they were doing what they were doing, but still it hurt to not only be taken for granted and overlooked but also barred from any personal contact. How often had he stayed late at the Hub busying himself with anything he could find just to have an excuse not to leave? Not to have to go to his empty apartment? Not to have to crouch in a doorway at home, crying his soul out? Not to be alone with his all consuming grief?

  But Ianto knew that no comfort would be offered from his co-workers. He could be glad if they tolerated his presence.

  _Jack should have shot me,_ he thought and fought to choke back the sob that wanted to rise in his throat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jack’s head whip around. _Did I say that aloud?_ Ianto wondered. _I hope I didn’t. Did I?_

  For a seemingly endless minute Jack fixated Ianto with his gaze. His features were unreadable and given the thoughts shooting through his mind and the emotions tightening his chest it was better that he kept that stoic face.

  “I don’t think that it will work, Jack,” Toshiko fuelled the loaded atmosphere.

  “What won’t work, Tosh?” the captain asked back without turning his gaze off Ianto, wondering how the young man was doing... and what would possess him to bring that subject up, alienating the team again when he, Jack, was trying so hard to include him.

  “This team-bonding-in-the-wilderness exercise.”

  Now Jack paid attention to Toshiko. “Come again?” he said.

  “What are we doing here, Jack?” Toshiko demanded to know. “So far there’s no sign that anything alien is involved in the disappearances of those people. They could have become victims of a band of robbers or have committed suicide.”

  “Siding with Owen on that one?” Jack smirked.

  _Uh, oh…_ “I just have found no trace of anything rift related,” Toshiko explained. “No unusual readings, no energy spikes, nothing.”

  “So…?”

  “Jack, if you wanted to bring us together you could have just taken us to a ropes course.”

  “Where would be the fun in doing that?” Jack pouted. “Besides, you’re not here because I thought that camping would be nice for a change.”

  “Well, you’re right,” Toshiko grumbled. “It isn’t nice.”

  “Tosh…”

  “No, Jack!” she exploded. “Owen hates it, Gwen’s regressing to a silly schoolgirl and I’m wondering where I’m supposed to apply my expertise in in the open countryside.” She glanced at Ianto and swallowed what she was about to say. She still had no idea why Jack insisted on taking the teaboy with them… except the captain really intended on making this a team-bonding excursion.

  “Tosh?” Jack queried, looking at her pleadingly. “What else is wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she spat, jumped up from her seat and headed for the tent.

  Stunned Jack watched her go. When she vanished in the tent he turned to look at Ianto, but the young Welshman avoided his gaze.

  Ianto felt uncomfortable in his skin. Jack, not unlike Gwen, seemed to have that compulsory need for love and harmony. That he could not get his co-workers to become a team in the real meaning of the word had to bug him. Still he felt Jack’s eyes bore into him and it made him edgy.

 “I… should go and see if I can’t find something to tidy up here,” Ianto said and walked out on Jack, too.

  Jack watched him go.

  _So much for bonding exercises,_ he mused. _I shouldn’t be surprised that Tosh figured me out and Ianto’s not dumb either. They’re both right. My tactic wasn’t that subtle._

  He sighed.

  _Guess that’s why I never led a team before. I was on my own for too long._ And he shuddered with the realization of how long _long_ really was. _I needed years to decide that I couldn’t run Torchwood on my own, that I needed help to make it thrive. When I first found Suzie… well, then Tosh and Owen… I thought that we could make a difference and for a while we did._

  _Was it a mistake to hire Ianto? Owen never got used to him. Something still is between them and it’s not the Cyberwoman-incident._

  _Cyberwoman-incident._ He let the thought linger in his mind. _That’s how I refer to it? It’s so distanced. I only realize it now. Mentioning her name makes her so real, makes her a victim. It’s not so easy to just push the thought aside that we killed her when she had a name. To see her as Cyberwoman, as a lethal threat to the whole world, makes killing her justifiable._

  _But that’s not how Ianto sees it._

  _He loved her. Ianto never told us if he planned on marrying her… because no one ever asked. He was right with that statement, too. We never asked him anything about himself._ I _didn’t ask him._

  _You’re the biggest monster of all, that’s what Ianto called me._ Still that comment stung. His insides rumbled with the memory. _I screwed up with this excursion. So maybe he’s not that wrong after all._

  His thoughts were interrupted by Owen who came running from where he and Gwen had vanished earlier.

  “Jack,” he panted. “Come! You need to see this!”

  “See what?”

  “We’ve found more than we bargained for on our search for firewood.”

  “Found what?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Jack creased his brows, but he knew that he could trust his doctor.

  “Tosh! Ianto!” Jack yelled as he jumped up. He saw them dart out of the tents. “Gwen and Owen found something. Let’s go.”

  The doctor led the way into the woods. When they reached the place where Gwen was waiting a few yards away from their discovery, guarding it, but never coming unnecessarily close, Owen squatted beside the remains of a body.

  “What have we got, Owen?” Jack demanded to know. “One of our missing people?”

  “Well, it’s not Ellie Johnson, that’s for sure,” Owen told him. “This is a male, late forties, fifties, wasn’t killed here, no blood spatter or signs of struggle. Must’ve been brought here after he died.”

  “Why do that?” Gwen wanted to know. “It’s not like they tried to bury him here.”

  “Maybe you disturbed them and they ran away,” Toshiko mused, her voice slightly wavering. She was shaken by the gruesome sight and tried desperately not to let it show. Computers were her domain. Being out in the field excited her. Finding carcasses made her uneasy to say the least. And this one was in a decidedly bad state.

  “Maybe it’s a warning?” Ianto suggested as he drew police tape around trees, cordoning off the area around the body. “Whoever is responsible, marking out their territory.”

  Deciding that they needed to focus their attention Jack squatted down next to Owen.

  “Cause of death?”

  “Impossible to say,” Owen admitted. “Body’s been stripped of the flesh and body organs, so all that’s left is a carcass.”

  “Could the Weevils have come out this far?”

  Tosh did not notice the glances the others threw at each other. She was not new. She was experienced. She should know enough about Weevils to answer her own question. It testified to her shock that the technician did not remember basic information.

  Jack, however, was ready to provide the answer, being oblivious to the glances himself as he concentrated on the remains before him.

  “No, Weevils don’t finish their victims off like this.”

  Thoughtful silence spread among the group as everyone tried to figure out what might have happened for her- or himself. Sounds of a starting engine tore them out of their musings.

  “Is that ours?” Gwen asked, alarmed and incredulous at the same time.

  “Yeah,” Jack confirmed and was already running.

  His team followed him.

 

tbc…


	3. We're walking

  They were running.

  Jack who had the head start was still ahead, but Gwen and Ianto followed close behind. In the distance they heard the motor running and crashing sounds.

  Right in front of Ianto billowed Jack’s navy blue greatcoat. It was what he used as point of orientation, trying to never let the distance to it grow. Ianto’s lungs were burning, but he did not care. All he knew was that he had to keep running.

  Around a bend they ran onto the clearing where they had set up camp. Jack screamed with rage as he saw the SUV run over the last standing tent and gun off over the path they had driven down here from the road.

  Seeing their car vanish between the hills they slowed their run.

  Ianto stumbled to a halt right next to a tent, Toshiko beside him. He saw Jack and Gwen further ahead, still staring after the car. Looking around he assessed the damage the thief had done.

  _A big pile of crap for me to clean up,_ he thought ruefully.

  A moment later Owen came jogging, too, dark looks greeting him.

  “Weren’t you the last one who was in the car?” Jack asked. “To get your medical equipment?”

  “Yeah,” Owen grumbled.

  “So…?” Jack mused, tilting his head to the side and raising his eyebrow questioningly. He had a strong suspicion about what had happened. Usually no one got into their SUV, no one.

  “I must’ve forgotten the keys. I’m sorry.”

  Jack’s gaze darkened, but what was done, was done. They could not change things now.

  “Great! Because of your thoughtlessness we’re without equipment and car now!” Toshiko snapped.

  “I wasn’t thoughtless!”

  The rest of the team walked around the camp rather lost, picking up a few things that might still be useful, and ignoring the two opponents.

  “So what are you calling it?” she challenged.

  “I… was concentrated on other things,” Owen replied.

  Toshiko snorted. “On what?  Sulking like a spoiled brat because you’re stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with the rest of us instead of back in Cardiff where you can go out on the lash as soon as the sun sets?”

  Shrugging his rucksack off his back Ianto searched in it and produced a PDA. The argument became rather amusing. _I guess that’s why Owen trailed behind… because he remembered that he left the car keys here. I like how Tosh is challenging him._

  “Alright! I said I’m sorry!” he heard Owen shout.

  “Basic security protocols, Owen!”

  “Oh, get off your high horse, Toshiko,” Owen grumbled. “I was carrying that stupid gear.”

  “What, the whole time!” the computer expert admonished him, waving remains of their gear at him.

  The device in Ianto’s hand came to life and, after he punched in the appropriate commands, it offered the car’s current coordinates.

  “Yeah, then I was trying to put that bloody tent up and then… Well, yeah, I sort of… forgot I’d left them in there. But, I’m sorry. I’m human. I ballsed up.”

  Ianto frowned over the readings. There was no mistaking the numbers on the display but he still doubted what he was seeing. When he glanced at the others he saw Owen and Toshiko still rummaging around in the ruins of their camp while Gwen sat on a crate, watching them. Jack was wandering around the campsite, taking in the destruction with a thoughtful expression. Ianto wondered what he might have in mind and tried to prepare himself for the blow-up. He was surprised when Jack settled for a comment on the problem at hand.

  “Looks like that body wasn’t a warning, more of a decoy.”

  “That would mean we’ve been watched since we’ve arrived,” Gwen said, sounding surprised.

  “Tosh?” Jack turned to their computer expert, “can you get a tracking signal?”

  “Already done,” Ianto threw in, ants in his stomach, holding up the tracking device to support his words. “I… took the liberty. It’s currently three point four miles west from here.”

  “Gunning at ninety, no doubt,” Owen said. “You steal a piece of equipment like that, you drive straight on till morning.”

  “Actually, no,” Ianto invalidated the doctor, feeling a bit smug to be able to tell Owen he was wrong. Reading from the display to make sure the data had not changed, he told them, “It’s been stationary for the past four minutes. I’d go so far as to say that it was parked.”

  Gwen had saved a map from the ruins of her tent and studied it.

  “There’s a small village in that area. Other than that, nothing for thirty miles,” she informed the others.

  “Call me suspicious,” Toshiko murmured, “but this has all the hallmarks of a trap.”

  “Yeah.” Jack sighed, but he sounded rather amused. “I was just thinking the same thing.” As he pushed his hands into his trouser pockets, trapping his open coat behind his arms, one of his famous smirks that made him look rather boyish cracked his features. “Anyone fancy a walk?”

  Ianto just shrugged and started in the direction his scanner showed him. Gwen and Toshiko trailed right behind.

  “To walk right into the trap?” Owen challenged Jack in his broadest cockney accent. “Wouldn’t that make your plan as brilliant as my forgetting the car keys in the camp?”

  “Not exactly,” Jack pointed out.

  “I see,” Owen frowned. “Why’s that?”

  “Because I’m your captain, Owen.”

  _And he’s aware he’s doing it, you prat,_ Ianto wanted to say, but didn’t. He was sure that Jack had some kind of plan, however tentative, in mind.

  “Dr. Harper,” Owen grumbled, starting to stride past Jack down the way the SUV had taken. Whatever else he was muttering they did not understand because he spoke low and already turned his back on them.

  “Does anyone share Owen’s opinion?” Jack asked.

  “Well,” Gwen said, “we need to get the car back. We certainly want to know who stole it in the first place. We still have seventeen missing persons on our hands.” She stood and started tentatively after Owen. “I’d say we take the challenge.”

  Once more Jack smirked. “What do you say?” he turned to Toshiko.

  “I agree that we need to get our SUV back. We can’t afford it to get into the wrong hands. And we still need to find out why those people vanished.”

  “Ianto?”

  “Why would I have tracked it if I didn’t expect to go and get it back?” the young Welshman asked. For some reason he wanted to smirk at Jack when he said that, but he stopped himself. He did not want it to be taken wrong. “This way.” And he started walking, too.

  “Owen!” Gwen yelled as she saw Ianto take the direct way right across the hills. When the doctor turned she gestured at him to come with them. Falling into a trot Owen caught up with them.

  “Can’t we take the path?” Owen grumbled. “I’m sure that the SUV didn’t go cross-country.”

  “But it’s taking a big bend,” Ianto replied. “If you want to walk about ten miles more… go ahead.”

  “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  For a while they walked in silence, not sharing more than a few occasional directions or complaints. As they climbed up a hill they noticed that the wind was blowing sharper on the peaks and dark clouds gathered on the horizon. The weather front seemed to come right down their way. Still it did not rain. The clouds just chased across the sky.

  “Great trip,” Owen growled. “I still hate the bloody countryside.”

  “You don’t have to point that out every five minutes,” Gwen told him.

  “Whose idea was it again?”

  “Mine,” Jack said. “And I agree with Gwen.”

  Frowning deeply Owen kept walking.

  Ianto found himself in an unfamiliar position. As he had the tracking device he was leading the group. It made him uncomfortable. _Is it really wise to go cross country,_ he wondered. _Maybe it would’ve been better to follow the path. It would take longer, but it would be much easier to walk._

  Now he could not change it. They were here and they were closer to their destination than they were to their starting point. The path was somewhere behind hills to their right and so far it had not been that difficult to wander the pasture.

  Reaching the top of the slope they climbed Ianto stopped for a second before he turned to the right. Before them was a big depression, not unlike a crater, but not nearly as round. They had to walk around it before they could continue in their general direction.

  Ianto was deep in thought. He felt the looks of the others in his back and wondered what they might think of him now. _Are they angry at me for leading them over hill and dale? I bet they’re swearing inwardly._ When he glanced over his shoulder every so often to check on them he saw dark expressions on their faces and heard their breaths, especially Owen’s. _And what the hell is Owen angry about anyway? He left the keys in the car in the first place. So it was his fault._

  Still Ianto could not get rid of the irrational feeling that everything was his fault.

  _None of us would have thought that the trip would go down this way. I don’t mind walking, but what if we can’t retrieve the car?_ Another look at the display told him that the SUV still had not moved. _Don’t think about it,_ Ianto ordered himself. _Concentrate on the task at hand, find it and get it back. That should be manageable, even for you, Ianto Jones. You wanted so desperately to be hired by Captain Harkness, now you have to live with the job._ Breathing out harder than usual he tried to hide a scornful snort. _For the job would be the better description. I wouldn’t have thought that everything would develop like it did when I first approached Jack. All I cared about was keeping Lisa alive. With Torchwood One gone the resources were gone, the information. We needed the Cardiff branch to even have a chance to keep her alive and find someone who could revert and heal her._

  _And then everything went haywire._

  Ianto’s chest tightened and that was not due to his march through the countryside. _I could have gotten us killed. I could have gotten the whole world killed. Lisa wanted to upgrade us. We would have upgraded other people… until the world would have been full of Cybermen._

  This time he could barely hide his sigh. Guilt flushed his face and he was glad that no one was in front of him to see it. He knew Jack had been right. Consciously he knew it.

  But his love for Lisa had been stronger than his reason and his attempts to save her had nearly destroyed everything. Trying desperately to push those gloomy thoughts to the back of his mind he walked almost forcefully.

  “Ianto!” Gwen panted, trying to keep up with him. “We’re not at the Olympics!”

  A quick glance over his shoulder was her only answer. Ianto kept up his pace.

  _What’s up with him?_ Jack wondered, following Ianto hot on his trail. _He hasn’t talked much since we left the camp and he seems to be brooding. Taking the initiative tracking the SUV he also took lead of the team for now._ Jack smiled to himself. _It happened quite naturally. Ianto could have given Tosh the tracking device he had in his backpack, but he chose to do it himself. He did it with the same subtle grace with which he tends to everything else the rest of us demand of him._

  Jack did not even try to hide his snort.

  _Just like he’s used to cleaning up after us. Just like he took care of deleting Gwen’s notes on her computer at home that night before she overcame the retcon, as Tosh already was home. He makes it so easy to overlook or forget everything he’s doing for us because he’s doing it so discreetly. I don’t think that we even know to what lengths he’s really going_ _to be accepted as part of the team_ _. He had to pay his dues anyway… and then came Lisa._

  Together with the thought came the realization that he actually referred to her by her name.

  _Lisa Hallet. It’s not that difficult after all. Lisa._ Looking ahead at the back of the young Welshman Jack tried to put his thoughts and feelings in order. Of course he had been furious when he had to realize that Ianto had hidden a half-converted cyberwoman in their basement. Actually _furious_ did not do justice to the rage he had felt, the rage and the fear of what might happen if the cyberwoman got the chance to escape and start to convert other people. It was that fear that made him threaten Ianto. He had been about to shoot him. By a hair’s breadth Ianto had gotten away with his life.

  That had Jack scared to death.

  It was something he would never admit, at least he could not imagine admitting it. Jack had killed before, in battle. Even though he honestly believed that every life was precious he hardly felt remorse over blood shed in battle. At those times, he just felt a deep regret that diplomacy had degenerated into violence yet again.

  But with Ianto it had been different.

  Ianto was a colleague, a man whom Jack respected even though he was young and inexperienced, a man he would like to call his friend. The sting of betrayal had been hard and deep and he still could feel it when Jack remembered that day. But in the light of the next day, hell, even that night when they had run after Ianto who was desperate to return to the Hub to rescue his love from Myfanwy he could not be angry with him. Jack knew love. Jack knew how much it could hurt. Jack knew how Ianto felt. And it broke his heart having to threaten him like that.

_Did he understand why I ordered him to come in for work the next day? Did the others understand?_ _Probably not_ _. Maybe I should have given him time off, not as a punishment, a suspension, but to give him time to grieve. I never was under the impression that he did grieve. Maybe I’m wrong about that, too. Ianto knows so well how to hide himself._ _Maybe_ _he finally understood that we all just needed to get back to normal. Sure, he needed to grieve and cope with betraying us. We needed to cope with his betrayal. We also needed to clean up which was hard enough to deal with even without Ianto as constant reminder that we killed his girlfriend in addition._

  _I think that Toshiko and Gwen understood that eventually, but I’m not so sure about Owen._

  Looking over his shoulder he took in the medic’s expression. He walked in silence, his jaws clenched, his fists balled in the pockets of his leather jacket.

  _No, I don’t think that he understands. He of all people should be able to understand, but maybe that’s what keeping him from doing it. Gwen on the other hand cares. She asked me if Ianto would stay, she saw the extent of his grief._

  Turning forward again Jack fixed his gaze on Ianto. He would love to get to know him better, but since Lisa’s death he was even more withdrawn than before. Ianto was smart and quick-witted, but he dealt only superficially with his colleagues, had always been on guard, and now that Jack knew about Lisa he understood why. Still Jack’s curiosity grew with every day he spent working side by side with the young Welshman. Should he cross the line and try an interaction he usually did not force on others?

  Deciding that it could not harm him Jack opened his mind to use his slightly rusty mental powers to explore him further and sensed waves of sadness, grief, worry and guilt roll off Ianto, but as he tried to advance he felt Ianto repel him. Surprised he raised one eyebrow. _Hey, who would have thought that you’re psychic?_ He grinned. _But then again… wasn’t that a Torchwood rule? Didn’t every employee in London have to attend classes in mental shielding? I think I heard Alex say something like that?_ It was a challenge. _I wonder if he noticed that he refused my access or if he did it subconsciously._

  _What if you’re really psychic? It would be a skill worth improving… if you want to work on it. I’d never push you, but it could prove to be very useful. In situations like this…_

  Jack knew that they were walking into a trap. He led them there and it was his responsibility to keep them as safe as he possibly could. It always was a tightrope walk between guiding and protecting them and letting them take over responsibility. As much as they were still learning to be a team he was still learning to be a leader.

  “How far?” Owen growled. “Didn’t you say three point four miles?”

  “Yes.”

  _Linear distance,_ Jack thought. _The hills are making it more difficult to walk and prolong the way to go… especially the_ perceived _distance._

  “Feels like three hundred.” His hands still deep in his pockets Owen stomped up the next slope.

  For another few minutes they walked in silence. Suddenly melodic sounds waved through the calm of the hills. Confused Toshiko and Owen looked around to try and identify the source, Jack listened more intently and Ianto only noticed it peripherally as he read his data. The sounds grew louder and could be recognized as humming now, forming a familiar melody.

  “What the…?” Owen nearly lunged at Gwen when she started to sing.

  “I love to go a-wandering; Along the mountain track; And as I go, I love to sing; My knapsack on my back.”

  She just took a deep breath to start the chorus when she was interrupted.

  “Don’t you _dare_!” Owen yelled. “One more note and you’ll lose your tongue!”

  “Oh, Owen, c’mon,” Gwen complained, pushing him off her. “It’s just a hiking song!”

  “I love to go a-wandering?” Owen panted. “Who the fuck are you kidding?”

  “Not you, obviously,” Gwen snapped. “I can’t stand the silence. What would you sing?”

  “I don’t want to sing anything! I want to be out of here! Bloody countryside!”

  “But what would you like to sing?” Gwen insisted, poking him in the side.

  Owen scowled at her. He looked as if he was about to kill, but then his features distorted to a wicked smirk as he started to sing, “Oh well I’m the type of guy who will never settle down…”

  “Owen!” Toshiko gasped. “Stop that!”

  “Where pretty girls are well, you know that I’m around…”

  “You’re not serious, are you?” Gwen chuckled nervously. She started to doubt Owen’s mental health.

  “I kiss ’em and I love’em ’cause to me they’re all the same…”

  But then again this was typical, familiar Owen.

  Now Jack and Ianto stopped their walk and turned to the wranglers. Jack raised his eyebrow with incredulity.

  “Owen?” Ianto said sharply, “Don’t you think your caterwauling rather ruins the advantage of surprise?”

  Owen did not listen, but Toshiko gaped at Ianto in shock.

  “I hug ’em and I squeeze ’em they don’t even know my name. They call me the _wanderer_ yeah the _wanderer_ , I roam around, around, around...”

  “Owen!” screamed Gwen and Toshiko, jumping at him, ready to tear him to pieces.

  “After all,” Ianto added, “we’re in a dangerous situation, without a lot of cover, and shouldn’t announce our presence any more than is necessary.”

  “Around, around…” Owen mumbled before he fell silent under the tickle attack of the women.

  Jack and Ianto looked at each other and rolling their eyes they pivoted around and continued walking, not caring if the others were following them.

  When they reached the next peak they stopped. One after the other Toshiko, Gwen and Owen joined them. Down in the valley was a row of old stone cottages. A grass covered path meandered to the village if you wanted to call the few houses that. To the left a few trees lined another path that led up to a single cottage up on a hill.

  “Why would anyone want to live out here?” Owen deadpanned.

  Jack wanted them to get focused and so he asked, “Has the SUV moved?”

  Glancing at his scanner Ianto replied, “Not for…” and he paused to look at his watch, too, “an hour now.” He walked on toward the path and the others followed him once more.

  _What will await us down there?_ Ianto’s insides slightly rumbled and he sensed his anxiety grow the closer they came to the cottages. _Whatever it is, it killed that man. It stripped him of his flesh and organs. It left only a bloody mess of bones and sinews._

_I wonder who he was. Who of the seventeen missing people? There were… yes, eight men on the list. Now what did Owen say? It was a male, late forties, fifties, wasn’t killed there, no blood spatter or signs of struggle… late forties, who fits that description?_

  In his mind Ianto went through the list of names, mentally scratching out the ones who were too young. That left him with two names.

_Okay, Gwen, you’re not the only one who knows how to do background research. I made the list for Jack, just so that you know._

_Now let’s see, the first one’s Alaister Frobisher, reported missing twenty-three days ago by a friend who wanted to meet him at a transport café to join up for a hiking trip through the Brecon Beacons National Park. No sign of him since. Then there’s Thaao Yogeshwar, biologist, who was on a research trip in the Beacons, studying the behaviour of red grouses. He was reported missing by his wife when he failed to make one of his regular calls. Rescue services could not find any trace of his camp._

_So one of them could be the unfortunate soul whose carcass Owen found. I guess only a genetic test can answer that question for sure, but if someone asked me, I’d say that it was Yogeshwar as he was described to be shorter than Frobisher._ _One thing’s certain, though: that body was not mauled by a red grouse._

Ianto had to chuckle at that ridiculous idea.

  _What powers would a bird like that need to have to overpower a grown man and strip him of his flesh? Or the grouses would have to hunt in packs like those small dinosaurs_ _in Jurassic Park. The compys, that’s what Crichton called them, compsognathus triassicuses._

  Even though the thought appeared to be bizarre at first, Ianto could not help but pursue that idea. In his mind’s eye his imagination mingled with pictures from the second movie he knew so well and saw one of the presumed victims run down a slope, a flock of birds behind him. The man tripped over a small rock that he could not see among the grass. At once the birds were over him, hacking at his body, tearing the flesh apart, blood splattering…

  _Is that what happened to them? Will the same happen to us? Are we already being watched? Prey for a swarm of unknown aliens? Bound to be mauled on the hillside?_

   _Don’t!_ Ianto ordered himself. _Don’t go there. If you don’t stop thinking like that you’re going to be sick. That’s the last thing you want to happen, especially in front of **Dr. Harper**. Besides, you’re being ridiculous! How likely is it that a bunch of small birds stole our SUV?_

  They did not follow the last bend of the path but cut short across the meadow. It was silent. Just a breeze rustled the leaves of the trees. The houses seemed to be vacant, the windows dark, the doors closed, no smoke from the chimneys. A tractor was parked on the edge of the front yard stretching along the row of houses. Water spewing from a pump and splattering onto a concrete slab, a bank of utility meters to the right of it, an empty barrel, two tires, a rusted piece of metal culvert. Everything just looked empty and desolate, the villagers long gone.

  At the edge of the grass they stopped, taking in the houses.

  Jack was the first who approached the buildings. Getting closer they could now see that one house to their left was a pub, _The Tap House_ being written in fading gold letters on a green sign above the entrance. Two tables and chairs stood in front of it.

  _Okay, what to do now?_ Jack wondered. He knew that they had to check the buildings for suspects or victims. He also knew that it was generally not the best idea to split up. But he did not want to put Ianto in a possibly dangerous situation. _So give him a safer job. He already is on the trail of the car. Let him retrieve it and pick us up when we’re finished here._ Satisfied with his decision he turned around to face his team and said, “Tosh. Ianto. Follow the signal, find the SUV. Gwen. Owen. Let’s see if there’s any room at the inn.”

  Checking the scanner again Ianto pointed to his right and he and Toshiko walked away toward the path along the line of trees while Gwen and Owen tagged on behind Jack to the tavern.

  None of them noticed the slight swing of the curtains in the window on the first floor above the pub.

 

tbc...


	4. The village

  With all the shutters closed it was dark inside the pub. Shining with their flashlights Jack, Gwen, and Owen entered the house. Jack stalked to the left while Gwen drifted to the right towards the till. Owen ended up in front of the counter.

  “Pint of the best, please, love, and um… yeah, get one for yourself,” the medic said with a sly smile, gesturing to an imaginary barkeeper.

  Gwen frowned at him and opened the till. There was money inside. She got it out to estimate the amount. It was not a fortune, but it was not peanuts either.

  “Where is everybody?” she asked her team mates.

  Owen looked at her almost apologetically, and with a tip of his head Jack gestured her to follow him deeper into the house. Leaving Owen to finish searching the ground floor, they climbed the stairs. The steps creaked a little under their feet. At the top of the steps, Jack lurched out onto the landing, arms stiff and straight in front of him, supporting his gun hand with the one that held the flashlight so that light and gun were both aimed at the same target, but there was nothing to shoot. Again, Jack went left and Gwen went on ahead. 

  With all of the shades drawn, the first floor was nearly as dark as the taproom had been. The light of her flashlight dancing in front of her Gwen stalked into a kitchen. A peculiar smell assaulted her nose. When she turned around a corner she heard electric crackling and looking up she found a bug zapper, dozens of the insects fried on contact with the irresistible, eerie blue light.

  Then Gwen let torch and gun sink. As her gaze drifted down, too, her stomach made flip flops. Pivoting she ran out of the room. She crashed against a cupboard and, leaning heavily on it, she coughed and choked. Nothing came out, but the breaths catching in her chest were painful and made her cough even harder.

  “You okay?” Jack asked as he came out of the bedroom.

  “In there,” Gwen just panted and indicated the direction with a jerk of her head.

  So Jack barged into the room, gun at the ready. He stopped dead when he found what Gwen had almost stumbled over. He really did not want to look, he really did not, it was that horrifying, but he simply could not turn away; and suddenly he knew why Gwen was choking. He stood transfixed, helpless to react, breathing open-mouthed to inhale less of the stench as he listened to someone clambering up the stairs.

  “Burger coming back to haunt you?” he heard how Owen teased Gwen as he went past her. A moment later the medic stepped beside him. Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw him turn his head and…

  “Oh, my God.”

  During his time as doctor at a hospital’s A&E he had seen all kinds of injuries and working for Torchwood he had performed several autopsies of most extraordinary corpses, but he could not recall having seen a corpse with more horrid injuries. Well, that was except the carcass they found in the woods earlier that day.

  From downstairs they heard the sound of a door falling shut.

  “Gwen?” Jack shouted, pivoting around and darting out of the room to the stairs. Together with the former police constable he ran down the stairs and stormed outside. There was no one to be seen. He looked left and right, spun around his axis aiming with his gun. Gwen was beside him, choking. She bent over as she coughed hard. Every now and then she would lift her arm to take aim at their surroundings, too.

  Nothing. There was nothing strange to see.

  “Jack?” Gwen panted between coughs. “Jack, please. Please tell me what’s going on here.”

  But Jack could not answer her. This time he had no idea what was going on. The only thing he knew for sure was that it was something horrible. Those bodies did not rip themselves apart on their own. Something had attacked, killed, and mutilated them. And Jack was absolutely clueless about who or what it was.

  _Well, we have to do something, anything. Whatever happened, we need to make sure that it never happens again. So what now? Check the area for possible threats…_

  “Let’s take a look in here,” he said, nodding at the house right next to the inn. “Come on.”

  Jack started for the house and Gwen followed him. Reaching the entrance Jack stopped on its left side, pressed against the wall with his back. He nodded at Gwen who stood in front of the door, taking the handle.

  “One,” he counted, “two, three.”

  With a quick jerk Gwen pulled the door open and directed her gun at anything waiting behind it. They both pushed inside, guns at the ready. Slowly they advanced into the house. Taking two steps further Gwen stopped in her tracks. Something was under her shoe. It did not feel right and she thought she heard a faint squish. She hesitated, but then she slowly lowered her gaze. Lifting her foot up she could see what she had stepped into.

  A puddle of blood.

  “What is it?” Jack asked.

  “There’s another body in there.”

  Transfixed she stood and stared at the barely as human recognizable form on the floor. The body was a bloody mess, bones visible in the left arm and leg. The ribcage was empty, all the flesh and organs gone. Sightlessly the dark eyes were directed at the ceiling.

  In the next moment Jack was by her side. “Same as the other,” he panted.

  “What did this, Jack?” Gwen demanded to know. She was pushy, challenging him, prodding for an answer. Her voice started to waver as she continued, “Cause whatever it is, it can’t be human.” Now she sounded downright scared, her voice raising, “How far is this gonna spread?”

  “Stay focused!” Jack commanded, knowing that it would be quite difficult for her. He also knew that she had to do it.

  “I should be at home,” Gwen rambled on, still sounding scared, but unable to tear her gaze off the corpse, “having dinner with Rhys. What am I doing here with you?”

  Jack was at the door.

  “Don’t you ever get scared, Jack?” she pushed. Realizing that he was not beside her anymore she turned her head to look over her shoulder. “Huh?!”

  The captain did not respond to her panicked question. Of course he was frightened! His fears might be different, but they were as real as Gwen’s, Owen’s or Toshiko’s. He could not afford to indulge his fears now, though. He was the leader of Torchwood, and he had a job to do. So did Gwen, and the best way for Jack to help her do her job was for him to do his.

  Determined he told her, “There’s another two houses. We better take a look.” Before she could argue he ran out, leaving her no option but to follow him.

  At the same time Owen still was in the kitchen of the apartment over the Tap House. He squatted beside the remains of the body, examining it. It was the body of a woman, but he could tell by her dark hair that it was not Ellie Johnson. She also seemed to be older.

  Parts of her flesh were gone, in face, shoulder, chest, and upper arm. A big chunk of her left thigh was scraped off the bone.

  The medic swallowed.

  This was so much unlike anything he had encountered before. He was not scared yet, but he was almost there.

  Owen took a swab and put it in a test tube. As he got up he murmured to the body, “Oh, whatever they were… I hope you put up a good fight.”

 

xXx

 

  Still having the tracking device, Ianto took the lead again as he followed the path leading away from the row of houses and up the slope. Toshiko walked right next to him. She was rather silent and Ianto thought he knew why.

  When he had joined the team not quite a year ago she had been nice to him. That was more than the others did. As he had wormed his way into Torchwood Three he could not even be angry at them about it. He sensed their reservation toward him. He had been with Torchwood One. It filled them with suspicion that he was in Cardiff now. Especially Suzie never failed to give him the impression that she perceived him as spying on them. If Torchwood would not have been destroyed in the Battle of Canary Wharf she would have treated him as a mole, Ianto was certain of that. And Owen was not much better though it was different with him. He did not make him feel like a spy but rather a servant and while their relationship became better after a while it deteriorated again after the incident with Lisa.

  _Lisa! Don’t go there!_ Ianto scolded himself. _You can’t afford to think about Lisa now!_

  It was hard, though. The pain still was way too fresh.

  And Toshiko?

  Toshiko did not give him the cold shoulder. She was not unreasonably friendly, but she said at least thank you when he brought her a mug of coffee while the others glanced at him like he was intruding their personal space when he came close enough to deliver the beverage. Toshiko also tried to include him in their banter when they sat together having lunch or dinner, discussing over pizza or Chinese take away.

  Ianto recalled it like yesterday. It was their first meal together, they were having pizza and Owen roared with laughter when he saw Ianto wear a napkin. And Toshiko had defended him, telling Owen that he might feel like protecting his clothes as well if he would not dress like a tramp. But Owen refused to let himself be impressed and claimed that Ianto would wear suits on the job because he aimed to seduce Jack who, being who he was, would have had no other choice but to hire the beautiful boy.

  Whenever it came to Owen’s opinion about Ianto’s qualification for Torchwood it was that, sex. Ianto sighed. _It’s true that I tricked Jack into hiring me, but I did it by convincing him that he really needed my administrative skills, an extra hand to manage the tourist office, organize the archives, and generally look after all of them. Well, not that Jack objected to a little personal looking after, though. His jokes and innuendos sure testify to his attraction to me, but I really don’t think he ever expected me to respond._

  But except for a momentary physical closeness the night Ianto convinced Jack of his abilities nothing had happened between them. At least nothing that had meant anything.

  It was something Ianto would not describe as making love. He wondered what Jack would think of him if he found out. _Maybe he already knows. After Lisa’s death he probably put two and two together._

  On his side it had been a desperate act and Ianto was not proud of it. In fact it still corded up his throat when he thought of it. And it was one more reason why Ianto was quite sure that nothing would ever happen between them. Jack was fascinating, Ianto could not deny that, but not _that_ fascinating. And what Ianto had done would always stand between them.

  Looking ahead at the house they were approaching slowly Ianto realized that his thoughts had trailed off. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Toshiko and her presence reminded him that she certainly was quite disappointed by him. She had been nice to him, tried to make him feel like being part of the team from the start, and how did he repay her? With betrayal.

  Ianto’s stomach rolled unpleasantly.

  _I knew it was risky,_ he thought. _I repressed any thought of the danger because I loved Lisa so much. All I could think about was saving her. She was not a Cyberwoman when I found her, not completely. She was Lisa. She begged me for help. I couldn’t let her down!_

  _Instead I let my colleagues down, my team, the people who took me in when I had nothing left. I’m such an idiot._

  _It’s not surprising that Tosh is trusting me only reluctantly now. I did nothing to earn her trust. Maybe I should just give her the tracker and let her take the lead. She’s certainly the more experienced agent._

  Walking right beside her team mate Toshiko harboured her own thoughts and feelings. For some reason she was reminded of the first time she had seen Ianto. It was on the Hub’s surveillance system. Toshiko had spent the night at their headquarters to finish a program she was writing and had spotted the young Welshman on the security footage. He was waiting outside the tourist office and tried to intercept Jack as soon as the captain stepped outside on his way to their favourite coffee shop.

  _How much has happened since then,_ Toshiko thought. _And how much he has changed since then. In many respects he’s still a boy, in others he’s grown up now, maybe even more than is good, actually. It’s odd to imagine him with Torchwood One. He seems a misfit with Torchwood Three and still he fits so perfectly._

  Furtively she glanced at him as he strode along beside her. He looked determined and yet sad and lost. It lasted just for a second before the impression was lost again, his features showing his concentration as he looked at the tracker.

  _Maybe it’s time that we let go of the past,_ she thought. _Jack seems to have forgiven him. And Ianto tries his best to prove that he’s worth being part of the team. We shouldn’t treat him like a leper. He never deserved that. What he did was wrong and dangerous, but he paid for his mistakes. It was a pretty hard lesson, but I think he learned it well._

  For a moment memories of her own first encounter with Jack flashed through her mind and she smiled to herself as she thought of herself, Owen, and Gwen.

  _Yeah, Jack has a hand for picking up the flotsam and jetsam, the drifters and homeless. He never talks about his own past, but I imagine that it’s not that different from ours._

  “It’s just half a mile up here,” Ianto startled her out of her reverie.

  “At least we’ve still got this,” she replied, finally taking the tracking device from him. “The rest of my stuff was in the vehicle.”

  Ianto smirked. He had wondered how long she would be able to stand going without her technology. Out here in the relative wilderness of the Brecon Beacons the computer expert had to feel like a fish on dry land.

  They had almost reached the house. Like the others down in the dip it was built with grey natural stones. The shutters were closed and there was no car, or laundry or any other sign of people around it. It looked rather vacated.

  Where the grass of the hills gave way to the lawn was impossible to determine. They were walking along a low wall, made of irregular natural stones like the house. Stepping over a bump beneath the grass Toshiko and Ianto split up. While he went directly to the front door Toshiko turned slightly right to kick at a rusty trough so that she could check if something was under it. Then Ianto tried the door which was locked.

  That was when a high scream disturbed the rural silence.

  “What was that?” Toshiko asked anxiously. She looked in the direction from where the scream came, but nothing could be seen there except the low border wall, the row of trees along it and open pasture behind. The hills kept their secrets.

  “Just a… fox or something,” Ianto mused. “Check round the back?”

  “Yeah.”

  Toshiko saw him walk around the low wall surrounding a yard in front of the house before she turned and walked to the opposite corner. There she advanced to a narrow passage between the main house and the smaller shack they had seen upon approaching. Drawing her gun Toshiko stalked closer to the alleyway.

_“Ahhhh!”_

  Toshiko’s head whipped around.

  Nothing.

  A bird squawked.

  Toshiko looked again, but still she could not make anything out that could be the source of the scream. Taking a deep breath and pushing her weapon forward first Toshiko stepped into the passage. Given the circumstances it was weird. Toshiko felt chills on her back as she slowly walked through to the other side. There she aimed with her gun when she first checked the right side, then the left.

  Nobody there.

  In the meantime Ianto had a closer look at a couple of barrels standing on the side of the house. Two were open and simply held water, the third was covered with a wooden lid. So Ianto tried to open it. Without any tool it proved to be difficult and so he just let it be and continued his way to the back of the house.

  Some gardening tools raised his interest. A rake, a spade and a pitch fork leaned against the brick wall. Even though the villagers seemed to be long gone the tools were obviously well used.

  _So they can’t be that far away,_ Ianto thought. _Or not too long gone. Maybe whatever has taken our missing people has taken them, too._

  Ianto shuddered.

  Hearing rattling sounds he decided to go ahead. Certainly Toshiko had reached the back of the house and tried another way in. He should not linger about. They had a job to do.

  With new determination he went toward the back of the house, but when he turned the corner he stepped right in front of a gun.

  Smiling a little nervously Ianto held up his arms.

  Letting out a sharp breath Toshiko lowered her weapon. _God, by a hair’s breadth I’d shot Ianto. Don’t be such a scaredy-cat, Tosh,_ she chastised herself. He was still smiling when he let his arms sink again and Toshiko mentally kicked herself.

  Seeing that there was nothing right behind the house Ianto climbed up the ridge confining the yard on its back. He walked up the slope a bit, trying to estimate where the SUV might be. They still headed in its general direction.

  “We should carry on straight up there,” Ianto shouted without turning back and gestured at the hill. When he got no answer he turned around.

  _Tosh?_ He could not see her anywhere. _Did she go back to the front?_

  “Tosh!”

  Ianto pulled out his own gun.

  “Tosh!”

  He looked to the right, he looked to the left. No Toshiko. Ianto’s nervousness changed to anxiety. _Where’s she gone? Why doesn’t she answer? What happened to her?_

  Ignoring his rolling stomach Ianto slowly approached the house. He kept his gun aimed in case someone, something, tried to attack him.

  _It didn’t help Tosh, though._ He shuddered. _Stop thinking like that. You don’t know what happened._

  And that scared him.

  “Tosh!”

  One step, then another…

  “Okay… okay…”

  _What to do now? I have to find her. I have to warn the others. What the heck’s going on here?_

  Oh, how nice brewing coffee was compared to this! Right now Ianto would prefer the Hub’s kitchen area and Owen’s jibes. Right now their headquarters below the Millennium Plass seemed to be the safest place on earth.

  _Remember what you learned in London,_ Ianto tried to remind himself. _You can do that. You need to do it. For Toshiko…_

  _Where are you? What have they done to you?_

  Gathering all the courage he could muster Ianto stalked closer to the house. It looked as vacant as before. Actually it looked barricaded. Did the people living here shut it up to keep it safe as long as they were away? Or was someone hiding in there?

  _Is there someone inside who’s as scared as I am?_

  Dead ducks, a rabbit, and a chicken were hanging in the trees, left to bleed out. Ianto swallowed and turned away from the small animals. Tentatively he reached out for Toshiko with his mind like he had been taught at Torchwood One, but he could not feel her.

  That made his insides rumble even more.

  _I should at least be able to sense her presence,_ he mused. _Hope they didn’t kill her._

  He gripped the handle of his gun harder as he approached the alleyway. Slowly he moved, listening hard for any sound, his eyes wide open and his nostrils flared. In his hands his gun was slightly shaking. Several times he looked back over his shoulders.

  Ianto had almost reached the other side when he heard a swishing sound behind him and he whipped around.

  Nothing.

  _A whole lot of nothing,_ Ianto thought and stalked back. _God, what am I doing here? What am I up against? Why didn’t I stay in Cardiff? Bloody hell!_

  That was when something bumped into his backpack and he was thrown forward, landing prone on the ridge. The gun was tossed out of his hand. Before he could reach for it he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Squinting up he saw a big shadow against the cloudy sky before everything went dark.

 

tbc…


	5. Food

  Gwen followed Jack out of the house and to the next door in the row. There was no time to think about their horrid discoveries. Jack did not grant her the time. He was already waiting beside the door, leaning with his back against the wall, his Webley in both hands. So Gwen took her position in the front, but when she tried the handle it did not move.

  “Locked?” Jack asked, sensing a hint of nervousness.

  “Locked.”

  Once more Gwen gripped the door and rattled on it. She peeked through the gap and tried again. This time the door gave way and swung open. Gwen just turned to the entrance when a shot thundered. She fell backwards and hit the ground hard. In agony she squirmed, clutching her right side.

  “Gwen!” Jack yelled, shocked. “Gwen!”

  _Oh, God! That’s my fault. I should’ve been in the line of fire. Dammit!_

  “Gwen!”

  Now he was by her side, but realized that he could not help her. “Gwen!” Panic tried to get a hold on him.

  Jack spun around, raising his gun and directing it at the hall behind the door. On the stairs up to the first floor squatted a young man, rather a boy actually, holding a shotgun. He looked terrified and was ready to shoot Jack, too.

  “Put the gun down on the floor!” Jack ordered.

  Behind him Gwen was coughing painfully. She tried to get up but fell back to the ground again. Her agonized moans clawed at Jack’s heart and he felt his fury rise. It was all he could do not to just shoot the boy he was aiming at. Instead he repeated more slowly, “Put… the gun… down on the floor.”

  “Look,” the boy panted, putting his rifle down, “I thought you were them. I thought you’d come back for me!”

  _He’s close to panicking,_ Jack thought. _Wonder what happened to him…_

  “Thought who’d come back for you?” he pushed. “Who?!”

  The boy stared at him out of widened eyes. He opened his mouth, but no sound left it.

  “Gwen!” Jack heard Owen yell from outside. “Gwen! What’s happened?! What’s happened?!” Ignoring the panicking boy Jack swivelled around and burst back outside where he saw Owen rush to Gwen’s side, dropping his backpack.

  “The kid hit her with a shotgun!” Owen just tried to lift her up in his arms, but Jack was faster, downright taking her out of Owen’s hold and getting up with her as if she would weigh nothing. “Up. Get up,” he ordered Owen before he tried to reassure Gwen, “I got you.” Unfortunately she could not hear him. At least she appeared to be unresponsive. “Move!” Jack yelled at Owen.

  Hectically Owen reached for his backpack and jumped past Jack at the door to open it for Jack who rushed inside with a reviving Gwen in his arms.

  “Move! Get in!” Struggling Gwen made it hard for him to hold her. He was practically chasing Owen in who cleared the way for him. With one swipe of his arm Owen emptied a table and Jack put Gwen down on it. Gwen moaned and gasped for breath.

  “Okay, I’ll check upstairs!”

  “Okay.” Owen grabbed a blanket and stuffed it under Gwen’s head.

  “Owen!” she whined, grabbing for him in panic.

  “Bet you thought you’d never be glad to see me, right?” Owen teased, remembering their discussion searching firewood. Wriggling she almost dropped from the table.

  “No, please!”

  Owen could just prevent her from falling and pulled her back up. She was clutching at her side now to protect herself, but Owen was having none of it. “Alright.” She was still fighting him and so he grabbed her hands to pin them down on her sides. “Listen! Listen. I’m gonna have a look at your wound now, okay? Just keep calm. Hands off! Hand off!”

  “No, don’t, please!”

  She still could not keep her hands still and writhed under Owen’s attempts to access her wound.

  “Okay…”

  “Don’t!” she protested, trying to push his hands away.

  Ignoring her he pulled her shirt up.

  “Right,” he mused, “Could have been much worse.”

  “Let me see!” she tried to sit up. “Let me…” Groaning she dropped back down.

  “Hold this,” Owen ordered, laying gauze on her wound. He guided her hand, “Apply pressure.”

  Moaning loudly she writhed under his treatment.

  “Jesus. The bullets are lodged near the surface. You’ve been bloody lucky, girl. Another inch to the left, any one of your vital organs might’ve been…” Realizing what he was saying by the way she was glowering at him Owen trailed off and waved her unspoken argument aside. “Anyway.”

  Furious this time Gwen attempted to wriggle away. Between holding her and warding off her attack Owen picked a syringe and a small bottle from his backpack. _She’s fighting. What a strong woman. I’m sticking to what I said to her, we wouldn’t be cosy. I’m sure we’d be amazing._ He drew a bit of the liquid into the syringe and smirked, certain that she would get it when he said, “Right, do you want a quip about feeling a small prick?”

  “No,” she groaned, chuckling madly, “but thanks for offering!”

  “Here we go…”

  “Ugh!” she grunted as he injected her. “Uuuuaaaah! Noooo!”

  “All done,” Owen soothed, putting the syringe away.

  “God!” Once more she curled up, lifting her head and shoulders off the table, to see what Owen was doing. Her hand searched for a hold on him.

  “Now let’s get the pellets out, eh?” Owen suggested and looked straight at her, waiting until their gazes met. “All right now,” he said in as calming a tone as he could muster. His thoughts trailed off to forbidden grounds again. “There’s gonna be a certain amount of residue, so just lie back and think of Torchwood.”

  Clenching her fist and pressing it to her mouth Gwen tensed, pushing her head back down in the blanket. With her free hand she clawed at Owen’s leather jacket. Her moves were frantic and she moaned as he worked on her even though she did not feel that much thanks to the anaesthetic. Gradually calming down Gwen relaxed and her hand, clawing at the doctor just seconds ago, stilled. Her fingers threaded into his hair and she stroked him gently.

  “Do you miss being a doctor?” Gwen asked softly.

  “Excuse me,” Owen chuckled, not looking up from his work. “Still am a doctor. I just don’t do it with patients anymore. That’s all.” Now he fleetingly smirked at her, “It’s ideal,” he nodded thoughtfully, biting his lower lip. “That was the bit I always hated.”

  He fumbled a pellet out and showed it to Gwen. As his view went past the metal grain he held with his tweezers he found her dark eyes, bright with pain. There was a smear of blood on her pale cheek. The contrast to her eyes and hair was strong.

  “You beauty,” he rasped tenderly, though it was not clear if he meant the pellet or Gwen. Then his eyes locked with hers. “C’mon,” he challenged. “I’m good.”

  “Not bad,” she replied teasingly, the small smile on her lips suggesting that she was not thinking of her injury anymore.

 

xXx

 

  _It’s my fault! It’s my fault! I should’ve been standing in the line of fire! All my fault!_

  Jack could not stop those thoughts as he hurried up the stairs to check on the first floor. Actually it was an excuse to leave them downstairs. Up here was where the boy had been before he came close enough to the door to shoot Gwen, so Jack did not really expect enemies on the first floor.

  _Gwen!_

  Jack could not stand the sight of Gwen, lying on the kitchen table, bleeding. An icy hand gripped at his heart and squeezed. His stomach rolled unpleasantly.

  When he burst back out of the house and saw Owen beside her his only thought was that they had to save her… and that he was completely helpless. He had been so glad to see the doctor there, because he had no idea how to help Gwen.

  Stop the bleeding.

  Yeah, that was the next logical thing. Just how would he do that? With his hands, or his shirt if necessary. Owen certainly had bandages in his backpack, and hopefully carried meds, too.

  _She must be out of her mind with pain,_ Jack thought ruefully. Having died so many times in so many different ways he knew how painful injuries like hers were.

  But the worst was that he was responsible. His guilt corded up his throat and made him choke on every concerned thought about his team members.

  _It’s my fault. I’m responsible. I brought us here. I made the decision to split up. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was wrong. I almost got her killed. God knows what’s happening to Toshiko and Ianto while we’re caring for the kid._

  _I hope they’re all right._

  With his mind he reached out for Ianto. As the younger man had responded earlier to his mental approach he assumed that he would be easier to find now, but all he got was a general sense of him being.

  _At least he’s alive._ Jack sighed. _Gwen’s in pain but she’ll be okay. Owen will look after her. I wonder if he’s nervous._ _Performing autopsies on aliens and treating a_ _living patient are two different pairs of shoes, though he was good at A &E_ _._

  Despite his anxiety Jack could not help but be amused. Owen would _never_ admit to being nervous. He would make his usual deadpans and be the arrogant bastard they liked him to be.

  _Tosh. She’s always hard to get. She’s not as withdrawn as Ianto, but she’s not open either. Where is she? Come on! Let me sense you!_

  But he only felt a blank.

  _Shit!_

  He stopped his search as he realized that he could not find Toshiko. Shudders passed his body as fear grabbed for his heart again.

  _No! No, no, no!_

  So Jack hurried back downstairs, taking several steps at a time. Swivelling around the corner he leaned the rifle against the doorframe.

  “What’s taking Tosh and Ianto so long?” it burst out of him.

  “Jack, give them a chance,” Owen replied. “The SUV might be locked up or under guard.”

  “Or they could be dead!” the boy screamed, his breaking voice testifying to his fear.

  Jack glared at him, unwilling to accept that possibility. _They are **not** dead!_

  “Well, everyone else is!” the boy insisted as if he read Jack’s mind, trying to get to the door.

  Jack stopped him. “Sit down!” he bellowed in order to break the boy’s panic. He saw the frantic expression, the wide, fearful eyes the boy gazed up at him with as he dropped in a nearby chair. A skinny guy, about seventeen, with short dark hair. Jack had to make him talk, forcing himself to speak more calmly, “Tell us what happened here.”

  “It’s not human,” the boy blurted out. “Look, my mum won’t know what’s happened.” He was close to panicking again, “They’re only expecting me back for the weekend!”

  “Look, we’ll get you home. Okay?”

  “Whoa, what are you gonna do? You can’t fight ‘em. They’re too strong!” Once more attempting to run away from Jack he jumped up to try for the door “The only thing we can do is barricade the door!”

  “No!” Jack took his shoulders to shove him back down in the chair and keep him sitting there. Turning to Owen who was just finishing Gwen’s treatment he decided, “We’ll make base at the pub.”

  “What about Tosh and Ianto?” Owen was the one showing his concern this time. “Should we go after them?”

  “Not till we know what we’re dealing with.”

  “What if it’s too late?” Owen exploded. From her place on the table Gwen glanced at Jack equally worried.

  “They’re not children!” Jack defended his decision adamantly. _Don’t let them see how nervous I am myself…_ “They know what to do! Let’s go.”

  Jack made two steps toward Gwen, intending to carry her over to the pub, but Owen stopped him raising his hand.

  “No, it’s alright,” the medic said, “I’ve got it.”

  Surprised by a strong feeling of irritation and odd jealousy Jack watched Owen help Gwen sit up and slide off the table. Shaking himself out of his momentary trance Jack pivoted around and stormed out of the house.

  “Yeah, Owen?” Gwen panted, struggling against her team mate’s hold. “Owen, I can do it alone.”

  She sure did try to walk, but taking the first step she stumbled and Owen had to catch her before she took a fall. Wrapped in his arms she was as close to him as never before. When their gazes met the electrons between them were running wild, so much that Owen thought he could hear the static crackle.

  “Look, I’m sorry about your friends,” the boy whined.

  The moment being broken Gwen and Owen turned to glower at him.

 

xXx

 

  When Ianto woke up his arms and legs hurt. Gaining a little more of his consciousness he realized that he was being carried by his arms, his legs dragging over the ground. His jeans protected his shins from being grazed.

  _What the heck…?_

  Ianto had no idea what was going on. What happened before he was knocked out was a haze. His thoughts were not coherent yet. So he reacted on mere instinct when he pulled his legs up and tried to plant his feet, struggling against the hold on his arms.

  He broke free and stumbled forward.

  It was dark, so he could not see where he was going. His mind was still foggy and the sounds of his captors’ steps behind him drove him into a panic. Frantically he glanced to the right and to the left. With outstretched arms he felt for a clear path.

  “Ho, hooo!”

  The shout sent chills down Ianto’s back. Whatever was chasing him was right behind him.

  _Help! Help me! Out! Away! Where to go?!_

  Wham!

  He ran into a wall.

  Old bricks? Stone.

  _Inside the house?_ Ianto wondered and did not really remember which house he meant. He was a mess. _Where the bloody hell am I?_

  “No!”

  He felt their touches on his back and arms and ducked to escape them. Trying to squeeze past his attackers he wriggled between the bodies close to him. He felt how his anorak was grabbed. His escape was thwarted as they held his jacket.

  Struggling wildly he writhed out of the anorak and ran.

  “Ugh!”

  His run was stopped by something he hit with his legs. Unable to slow his momentum he kind of flew over the obstacle and crashed to the ground. Pain shot through his body. Groaning he could do nothing but wait for his captors to catch up to him.

  Torchlights danced over him before they took his arms again to drag him away. Ianto heard a door being pushed open. They shoved him through and let go of him so that he fell yet again, hitting the floor hard.

  Behind him the door swung shut with a thud.

  _Where…?_

  Ianto had lost his sense of orientation. The darkness surrounding him faded only gradually. A faint shine of light filtered through a very high window in a chute. So as far as he could tell it was still day.

  For a while he just lay motionless, trying to assess his condition. He hurt. His head, his arms, his shins. Ianto was sure that he had abrasions from his fall. Shifting his position he attempted to get a bit more comfortable, as comfortable as one could get on cold hard ground. It was impossible so he finally fought to sit up.

  As his hand brushed over the ground in search for support Ianto felt something metallic. His fingers closed around what he thought was a bar or something. Once he sat upright he felt it up and down and found a sharp hook on one end.

  _A crowbar? No, then the hooked end would be flat and cloven._

  In the poor light he looked around. All kinds of junk were scattered on the floor. Ianto groaned with pain when he scrambled to his feet just to drop down clumsily on a wooden crate. There he sat and tried to take in more of his surroundings. Off to his right he spotted a figure.

  _Toshiko?_

  His suspicion was confirmed when he heard her moan. It was not easy for her to get up either, but Ianto honestly did not feel as if he could be a lot of help.

  “You know, I never liked camping,” he whined as he saw her rise. She patted her body and looked around searching. “Don’t bother. They took the guns.”

  Toshiko did not answer. Instead she bent down and pulled something out of her trousers’ leg. A second later a light flashed on.

  _How nice of them to leave her a torch,_ Ianto thought rather sarcastically. _That will help._

  “Charming place they’ve got.” Toshiko shone around. In the thin ray she could not make out much, but it was clear that their prison was kind of a dungeon.

  “Judging by the sound reverberation and the air quality… pretty deep underground,” Ianto told her. The chute also indicated a cellar. “Chances of rescue?”

  Toshiko looked around at him. He sounded nervous. _He’s talking just to fill the silence,_ Toshiko mused. _It’s his first field mission as far as I know. He must be scared._

  “We won’t need rescuing,” she tried to assure him, though she kept her tone casual. “Haven’t met a cell yet I couldn’t get out of.”

  “What were they?”

  “I don’t know,” she had to admit. “It happened too quickly. You worried?”

  Nervous laughter accompanied his answer, “A little.”

  While talking Toshiko searched for a way out. Now she stood by the chute and leaned forward to squint up at the window at the top. Doing that she supported herself with her free hand on the scant chute bottom. Feeling wetness she drew back her hand and shone with her torch.

  Blood.

  Ianto saw it, too, and his heart jumped into his throat.

  “That body we saw in the forest…”

  “Don’t think about it,” Toshiko cut him off. She had to think of something to occupy him, quickly. “See if you can’t get that light to work, huh?”

  Obediently Ianto got up and went to the cable Toshiko had spotted. A single bulb dangled on its end in an old simple lamp. He grabbed for it, but his gaze was drawn to Toshiko who kept examining their prison. There was a verve in her movements that did not quite fit with anxiety. She rather seemed to be excited about something. It was not only in her posture but also in her behaviour. A chill ran down Ianto’s spine as he realized what kind of energy she radiated. He had seen it before, but he only recognized it now.

  “You’re used to this, aren’t you?” he said while he fumbled with the light bulb. “That facial expression you all share. When things get a bit out of control. Like you enjoy it. Like you get a high from the danger.”

  “You want me to apologize for that?” Toshiko snapped. At once she regretted her tone. It could only serve to make him even more tense.

  “Don’t you ever wonder how long you can survive,” Ianto burst out passionately, “before you go mad, or get killed, or lose a loved one?”

  “It’s worth the risk,” she barked back, confronting him. For some odd reason she noticed his dark voice and how much she loved the sound of it in his anger. “To protect people!”

  “And who protects us?!”

  Stunned by his outburst Toshiko did not know what to answer. So both stood, staring at each other, waiting for the other to say something.

  _She’s speechless. She’s got no idea what to tell me. Oh, God! There’s nobody! We’re on our own!_ His insides constricted painfully. _What about the rest of us? Gwen, Owen, and Jack. Jack! He’s our leader. We’re his responsibility. We’re a team. But what will they do? What can they do? Maybe they’re caught already! Oh, God! Nobody will come for us._

  They still stood in kind of a standoff. Toshiko’s thoughtful features intensified Ianto’s uncertainty. _Nobody will come for us! Not even Jack! Especially for me. Maybe for Tosh, but not for me. I’m just the teaboy…_

  Toshiko still was stunned. The passion carried by Ianto’s voice made her weirdly uneasy. She remembered his fervour when he had been fighting for his cyber-girlfriend. This was not quite the same. It was like enthusiasm powered by fear but at the same time she sensed his loyalty and commitment. Their imprisonment got on his nerves. And on hers, too, if she was honest to herself.

  Looking for something to do she turned around. She needed a distraction, from her thoughts that were about to drive her into a guilt trip and mild panic as well as from her grumbling stomach. Annoyed she sighed, “God, I’m hungry.”

  “You should’ve had that cheeseburger,” Ianto remarked, sounding amused.

  Toshiko on the other hand was not amused. “Not that hungry…” The beam of her torch slid over something on the floor that rose her interest. “What’s that?”

  Ianto had taken hold on a chain dangling from the ceiling, his thoughts still lingering on the realization that they were left on their own. Now he picked up on Toshiko’s discovery, glad to focus on something new.

  “You found something?” Ianto asked hopefully, stepping in her direction to try and see what she was reaching for.

  “It’s just a shoe.” She shone further ahead. “Wait, there’s another.” From the second half of the pair of slippers she let the beam wander to the wall and up a crate. On top of it was something that made her uneasy. The sight reminded her of her old history books from school. “There’s dozens of them.”

  “Oh, my God.” Ianto could not even tell what made his insides constrict again. A hard lump lay in his stomach like the stones in the wolf’s stomach in the Brother Grimm’s tale about the wolf and the six young goats. Something about that pile of shoes was just wrong.

  “How many people have been down here?” Toshiko mused aloud.

  “And what happened to them?” Once more an underlying fear resonated in his voice.

  Toshiko’s torchlight danced over the shoes to the side and came to rest on a big frame with a heavy door.

  “A fridge?” Toshiko was confused. Nothing in this room made the impression that it was used for storage. So why put a refrigerator down here? Her natural curiosity drew her closer to the fridge and made her open the door.

  She would have sworn that she felt her pupils widen as her gaze fell on the fridge’s contents. For just a second she was frozen in place before she smashed the door shut.

  “Tosh?” Ianto demanded to know, urgency back in his voice. “What is it? What’s in there?”

  But she just pivoted around and stared at a point far away in the distance.

  “Tell me!” Her silent shock and reluctance to talk only served to annoy Ianto. Convinced that she wanted to exclude him he started forward.

  Toshiko grabbed for his arm to hold him back from passing her. He was determined to get to the fridge, though.

  “Ianto, don’t,” she pleaded. As shocked as she was by her discovery she just knew that Ianto would dissolve in a panic once he saw what was in there.

  “I want to know!” Ianto shouted, pushing her aside. _Why’s she still shutting me out? We’re in the same boat. What’s the point in hiding what she discovered?_

  There was nothing Toshiko could do now to keep him from opening the fridge.

  Any angry remark he might have wanted to make died in Ianto’s throat as he stared at the preserved body parts. Eyes and mouth wide open with shock he fought for his composure. His breathing accelerated and he could feel his pulse thump in his neck.

  “That’s why there was nothing left on the body,” Toshiko murmured tonelessly, stating the obvious, “They need to eat. We’re food.”

  Paralyzed, all Ianto could do was stand and gape at the chunks of meat in the fridge.

  _Human! That meat is human! They’re going to eat us! Oh, God! We’re food! We’re food! We’re **food**! God! We’re **food**!_

  He was still staring at the fridge’s contents when Toshiko slammed the door closed with a thud.

 

tbc…


	6. You don't know

  Jack had been the first outside, scanning the area for possible threats. Then he made sure that the pub was still safe before he went and told the others that they could come.

  Her arm wrapped around Owen’s shoulder for support Gwen painstakingly slowly made her way over. The boy was right behind them. No one had been able to talk him out of carrying his shotgun.

  “What’s your name?” Gwen pressed through gritted teeth.

  “Kieran,” the boy replied, looking around nervously.

  The pasture lay silent. Occasionally a bird squawked or chirped. No big animals like cattle were in the hills. The slopes rose green and mostly undisturbed by higher vegetation. Just here and there a crooked tree won the fight for survival. Dark grey stones littered the grass covered slopes and rocks broke through the even hills, giving them their rough appearance.

  They lay peaceful.

  It was a deceptive peace. Jack knew that. He stood in the yard, looking around, his Webley in hand, ready to defend the others if necessary.

  Nothing.

  _Whatever attacked the boy is hiding well,_ Jack thought. _Wish I knew what we’re dealing with._ But nothing came to his mind. _Well, we can discuss it when we’re safe inside the pub._

  Walking backwards, still letting his gaze roam over his surroundings, Jack followed the others inside. When he turned to them Owen just manoeuvred Gwen to sit on a bench near the wall. Kieran sat down beside her, still his weapon in his hands.

  “What now?” the medic asked.

   _Yeah, what now?_ Jack sensed shivers run over his back. If only he knew what to do. He had not anticipated this development so he had no plan for dealing with it.

  “Well, as I said, we’ll make base here,” he finally said. “The pub’s a central point. When Toshiko and Ianto come back with the SUV they’ll know how to find us.”

  “Okay, but what are we _doing_ now?” Owen pushed.

  “We’ll _wait_ for them,” Jack insisted. “We’ll keep watch so we know if anyone approaches, and we’ll wait for them. We’re wedged in the middle between two other buildings, so we have just the front and back to defend. Owen, you cover the back of the building.”

  “Who are you people?” Kieran piped up.

  “We’re Torchwood,” Jack replied.

  “What’s Torchwood?”

  “ _We_ are Torchwood.”

  “But what is it?” Kieran looked from one to the other. “Are you police? Military?”

  “No,” Jack said dryly. And that was all the boy got to know.

  So while Owen stood guard by the window in the back, Jack switched places at the two windows in the front. Gwen tried to make herself comfortable on the bench without much success. Beside her Kieran was tapping the floor with the butt of the shotgun.

  “Stop that!” Gwen said harsher than she actually intended. She could understand why he was nervous.

  “How long have you been here, Kieran?” Jack asked.

  “We came to the Beacons two days ago,” he said, stopping his tapping to emphasize his words with gestures. “There were three of us.”

  “Who?”

  “Kendall and Trystan. They’re cousins. Trystan’s in my class.” Still his anxiety was audible in his high pitched voice. “Kendall vanished first!”

  “When?” Gwen gently asked.

  “First night. We were camping. He must’ve gone for a pee and didn’t come back. In the morning he was gone!”

  “Why didn’t you leave?” Jack wanted to know.

  “Couldn’t!” Kieran whined. “He had the keys.”

  “The keys…”

  “For the bloody car!” Kieran burst out when Gwen did not follow at once. “We were searching for Kendall, I walked down a slope and when I turned he was gone. I couldn’t find Trystan. I kept searching. Found this village. I got the shotgun from one of the houses. When they came to get me I shot at them and barricaded the door. Then you came! We have to block the door!” His voice broke again. “Otherwise they’ll get in! They’re too strong!”

  _Trystan, Kendall and Kieran,_ Jack thought. _On a camping trip… now Ianto could tell me at once if they were on the list…_ But Jack had to get the list out to look at it. Scanning the seventeen names on it he found the triad. _So one of them survived. I wonder what the attackers are. What species is it? What’s going on out here?_

  Once again Jack reached out for Toshiko and Ianto. This time he sensed both their presences. He also sensed danger. _Ianto?_ Jack tentatively asked. _Ianto, can you hear me?_ There was no reaction, so he tried it again, this time less cautiously. _Ianto!_

  But he could not reach him and Jack knew that it was unlikely that Toshiko would hear him. Still he tried to contact the computer expert, without success.

  “So what now, Jack?” Owen prodded. “It’s getting dark.”

  Jack knew he had to make a decision. He saw that the sun was setting and Kieran got more agitated by the minute, but he still did not know what they were dealing with.

  “Okay,” he said. “Let’s block the door. C’mon, Owen.”

  Both men started to take the chairs and tables of the pub to pile them up at the door, blocking the handle. They warded off Gwen’s attempts to help and Kieran would not put the weapon down.

  “So, if we barricade ourselves in, what happens to Tosh and Ianto?” Owen demanded to know.

  “Why are we still talking about this?” Jack barked, venting his own fear. “Tosh and Ianto can look after themselves. The kid is our first priority. Now, they’ve already been for him once. They’re not going to give up that easily.”

  As the others would not let her help Gwen went to the blackboard that hung beside a dartboard. There was chalk on the tray and so she started to write down what they already knew.

  “So, have you ever heard of a species who strip human bodies of flesh and organs?” she asked.

  “What are you doing?” Owen exploded, rushing over to her. “You need your rest.”

  “Compiling what we’ve got,” she defended herself. “Seeing if it helps.”

  Both tried to stare each other down. Owen blinked first.

  “We have to assume the others who disappeared have been killed, too,” Jack said.

  “So you think there’s been seventeen deaths.” Gwen noted it on the blackboard.

  “At least. These aren’t casual killers.”

  Owen checked his gun, having the distinct feeling that he would need it that night.

  “Okay, so all this means, the Rift is spreading and it’s dumping aliens and psychos wherever it fancies.”

  “Looks like that,” Jack agreed.

  “Great, this conversation’s cheered me up no end.” Owen aimed just to get a feel for it.

  Gwen drew in a deep breath. Now that night fell she felt her own anxiety rise. Having to sit here while their team mates were still out there, probably in danger, made her restless. How Kieran managed to fall asleep on the bench, lying on his back and holding the gun to his chest with both hands, was beyond her.

  There!

  Out of the corner of her eye Gwen had seen movement. Something rattled on the window.

  “Huh!” Gwen gasped, alarmed, staring at the window. “Did you see that?”

  “Somebody outside?” Jack queried and hurried to the window she indicated by nodding. He thought that the former police constable looked quite beside herself, her mouth and eyes wide open. Peering outside he could not see anything suspicious.

  Sounds of glass cracking came from outside, as if someone was stepping on a pane or a tumbler.

  “Was that the same one or different?” Owen blurted out, aiming with his gun at the other window.

  Gwen’s gaze drifted to the sleeping boy. “He said they’d come back,” she said tonelessly.

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Jack told her, coming back from the window and joining his two team members in the centre of the room. “We don’t know who they are… or what their intentions are.”

  Right at that moment something cracked and the lights went out.

  “I’m thinking that’s not a good sign,” Owen remarked wryly.

  Jack went to the back door. It was locked and blocked. Someone, or something, rattled on the front door. A faint light shone outside. It scurried past the window. Gwen and Owen shone with their torches and aimed with their guns at the openings.

  The lights and scratching noises shook Kieran out of his slumber. He sat up with a start, his gun pointing to where the others aimed, too, and whined, “They’ve come back!”

  “Kieran! Listen to my voice, okay?” Gwen commanded. “Just come back.”

  More rattling on the front door made them all turn nervously to the entrance.

  “Kieran!”

  Now Jack drew his weapon, too.

  Like the others he concentrated on the windows, until the rattling stopped abruptly. They stared at the front door, tense with anticipation of an attack. From one second to the other everything was silent. Not a single crack, thump or call of a bird outside could be heard. All that reached their ears was their own breathing. It was so silent all of a sudden that Gwen thought she could hear her own heart beat.

  Into that silence cut a low creaking sound. Slowly turning their heads around to the noise they realized that something was wrong. All three aimed with their guns.

  “Okay…” Jack trailed off. “So we didn’t check the cellar.”

  Something had secretively tried the handle of the door that led downstairs, and it had creaked with the movement. Now something pushed against the door, throwing it in the padlock that held it closed. Jack rushed to the door to prevent them from breaking in.

  “You can’t let them in!” Owen shouted.

  “Kieran, come back from the door!” Gwen yelled as she saw the boy head after Jack.

  “Don’t let them in!”

  “Sit down!” Jack barked at the boy. He clung to the handle to keep the attacker from pushing it down and pressed with his whole weight against the door that rattled in its frame from the impacts from the other side. “We’ve got this under control!”

  But with his rifle still aiming at the cellar’s door Kieran pushed in Jack’s direction, his face contorted with fear and his voice high as he contradicted Jack, “You don’t understand! You don’t know what they’re like!”

  Glass shattered.

  Shots thundered.

  Kieran shot, too, marching toward the cellar door.

  Gwen and Owen ducked behind the bar.

  Jack stepped back to shoot at whatever came up from the cellar.

  Chaos reigned.

  Seconds.

  Jack ducked for cover.

  Kieran screamed, storming forward shooting.

  Gunshot flashes.

  Glass raining.

  “No, please!” Kieran screamed as he went down hard, his legs pulled from under him. “Please, no! Not me!”

  “Kieran!” Helpless Gwen had to watch how he was pulled down into the cellar, screaming. She jumped forward, trying to get to him, but he already vanished in the darkness. Jack held her back.

  “Help me!” Kieran’s voice waved up the stairs.

  Gwen was ready to storm downstairs, guns blazing.

  “It’s pitch-black!” Jack yelled, tightening his grip on her arm. “You don’t have any tracking devices! Do you wanna get yourself killed?”

  “Get out of my way!” She jerked her arm out of his hold.

  “Look,” Jack argued, “whatever’s in that cellar took three bullets! I heard it fall! Once we know what it is then we’ll know how to deal with it!”

  “You do that. We’ll go after Kieran and the others!”

  “You are wounded!” Jack’s shout was harsh and louder than intended. His worry made him almost physically sick.

  “Do you think that’s gonna stop me?!” Gwen yelled back.

  For a few seconds they stared each other down, then Jack stepped back from her.

  “Be careful,” he ordered. With a jerk of his head he gestured Owen to follow her. “Go!”

  The medic squeezed past him and Jack saw them both go with trepidation. All he could do now was trust their abilities and hope for the best.

  Taking a deep breath the captain prepared himself for facing whatever hid in the cellar.

 

xXx

 

  In another cellar he found himself sitting on the crate again. His arms wrapped around his drawn up legs he let his head rest on his knees. Slowly the whirlwind of his mind calmed down. The fog lifted and he saw the darkness closing in around him. Still, there was something that drew him away from the dark, a low soothing sound and a touch on his back. The soft hum suddenly stopped.

  “Ianto?”

  The young man was not sure who was calling that name or whom they were addressing. For a fleeting moment he did not know his own name. His mind was desperately trying to separate him from the horrible things that were happening. It neither accepted his being here nor acknowledged his surroundings which felt as if they were shifting closer and closer, suffocating him.

  Gradually his mind allowed him to identify the touch on his back as a hand rubbing soothing circles. Tingling waves coursed through his system. His frayed nerves did not make it easy to accept the concept of being comforted.

  _What upset me so badly?_

  Bit by bit his memory returned.

  _Food! We’re food! Oh God! They’re gonna eat us!_

  “Tosh?” he asked, still a little confused. He raised his head to look around at her, but regretted it at once. His rather dark world started to spin and colourful lights danced before his eyes.

  “Ianto!” Toshiko said, taking both his shoulders to steady him. “Easy. Take it slowly, okay. Shhh. How do you feel?”

  “N-not sure,” he murmured, burying his head between his knees again. “A little sick,” he groaned.

  “Okay. Stay like that for another moment. You’ll feel better quickly. You’ll see.”

  Ianto hoped that she was right. He did not remember when he had felt that shaky the last time. Did he ever? Not even Canary Wharf had thrown him that much. At least he did not remember it as that bad, but he probably was mistaken.

  “Did I pass out?” Ianto asked rather tentatively. Still Toshiko could clearly hear his discomfiture.

  “No, you… kind of froze. You just stood there, staring at the fridge, and would not move.”

  “Like I was catatonic?”

  “Hmmm, maybe a little,” Toshiko decided and gave him a fleeting hug. “You were shocked by what you saw. I was shocked, too.”

  Slowly he nodded, coming to terms with his embarrassing almost blackout.

  “Do you feel better now?” Toshiko prodded.

  “I’m cold.”

  “Yeah. I’m cold, too. They took our jackets together with your backpack.”

  “I lost mine when I tried to escape them,” Ianto murmured. More and more the fog cleared and he recalled where he was, the attack that brought him here, and the fridge with its horrific contents.

  “You fought them?” Toshiko asked, sounding impressed.

  _As if she wouldn’t have expected me to,_ Ianto thought. _What’s she thinking? That I would just give up? That I’m a coward?_

  “Yeah. They dragged me through a hall and I wriggled out of my anorak to escape them.”

  _Obviously you weren’t successful,_ Toshiko thought ruefully, and berated herself a second later, _That doesn’t mean that you didn’t try. I’m sure you fought like hell._

  “What happened?”

  “Bad luck,” Ianto sighed. “It was dark and I fell over something. So they took me and threw me in here.”

  “Shit.”

  Ianto could not help but chuckle upon hearing the usually so polite Japanese scientist curse.

  “Yeah, shit,” he agreed. “I couldn’t see anything. No idea what they are.”

  “I didn’t see anything either. Something hit me from behind and I woke up here.”

  “But we don’t want to stay here, right?” Ianto challenged. “So, did you find a way out?” Ianto asked.

  “I didn’t keep searching,” Toshiko admitted. “I was looking after you.”

  _I needed looking after? Oh no..._ Ianto was not happy with that information. When he was left on his own behind the house and later when he was thrown into the cellar he had felt protective of and responsible for Toshiko. Now he had to realize that this old chivalrous model did not really apply to their situation. She was by far the more experienced field agent, and if they had captured her with all her knowledge and training, then he certainly had not stood a chance against them.

  “Well,” he moaned, rubbing the sore back of his neck. “Then we should find it now.”

  “Yeah, sure,” she agreed, reaching out for him supportively when he fought to stand up.

  “What about the chute?” Ianto asked.

  “Let’s have a look at it.”

  Toshiko reached it first and leaned in to look at the window covering it. The light was slowly fading, night was falling.

  “It’s getting late,” Toshiko murmured as she searched for a hold on the sloped bottom of the chute. “Ugh. It’s slippery.”

  “Blood,” Ianto groaned, disgusted. “I could boost you up,” he then offered. “C’mon.”

  Folding his hands he offered them for Toshiko to step on. She placed her boot on his palms and skidded up the slanted chute. From there she reached up but was still not high enough.

  “I can’t reach the window,” she panted. “Could you…?”

  Ianto was already shoving her further up. “How about now?”

  “Just a little more!”

  Taking a deep breath he supported himself on the concrete before he let go with the other hand to take her boot in another angle. Then he helped her to find footing. “And now?”

  “Better!”

  Toshiko let her hands roam over the frame but could not find a handle or lock. There was nothing she could open the window with and as much as she could see the window was not the top of the chute. If she was not mistaken there were bars across the opening on top.

  “You can let me down,” she shouted down. “That’s not our way out.”

  “Shit.”

  Now it was Toshiko’s turn to chuckle. “Yeah, shit.” She was equally surprised to hear the ordinarily polite young Welshman use such language.

  With Ianto’s help she crawled back down. When she was standing beside him again she eyed him intently and noticed that he did not look that good.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Sure,” he laughed nervously. “I’m trapped in a cellar, with a fridge full of chunks of human meat, waiting to be slaughtered and eaten, but that’s no problem. I feel fine. Never felt better.”

  “Ianto…” She reached for his arm, but he avoided her contact.

  “No, no, really. It’s okay. No problem. Just ignore me.”

  “Ianto!” Toshiko said more urgently, sensing that his anxiety returned. She did not want him to get all worked up. She needed him to focus.

  “We have no reason to worry. I’m sure they’ll notice that we’re not to their taste. So no problem…”

  “Ianto!”

  Her sharp tone brought him back to his senses. He saw her look at him out of those big dark brown eyes and knew that he had to pull himself together. He had to remember what he had learned and do his best to help Toshiko to get them out of this mess.

  “Okay,” he panted. “Let’s try the door.”

  “Okay,” Toshiko agreed and turned on her heels. “Looks solid.”

  “Then let’s find out how solid it is,” Ianto said and let his hands roam over the doorframe.

  “Got to be three steel bolts,” Toshiko thought aloud as she examined the steel door. “Top, middle, and bottom.”

  “How are you at calculating target stress points?” Ianto turned to her, talking fast and breathless. “Find the weakest point. Bit of brute force?”

  “Nice thought, but it’s reinforced.”

  She was still trying to figure out how to trick the construction into opening when Ianto found a hold on a pipe under the overhead floorboards and kicked at the steel door. It was a fruitless attempt. All he achieved with his kicks where thunderous thumps and a foot throbbing from the impact.

  A tiny flap in the door opened and both Ianto and Toshiko hid beside the door, pressing against the wall.

  Creaking distinctly the door opened and, rifle first, someone stalked in. Without even thinking about it Ianto attacked the person. He was quick, but his opponent was faster. Something hit his lower abdomen. Ianto stumbled backwards and went to the ground. There he curled up to fight the blinding pain that drove tears into his eyes.

  “Get off!” the incoming person shouted.

  Toshiko realized that it was a woman. Still she grabbed for the meat hook, Ianto had found earlier.

  “Look at me, you idiot!” the woman yelled. “I’m not gonna hurt you!”

  Lying on the ground, clutching at his stomach, his eyes blurred with tears of pain, Ianto tended not to believe that. In his opinion he already was hurt and he groaned.

  “You’ve got a gun,” Toshiko stated, trying to distract her from Ianto.

  As if she realized that fact only now the woman directed the rifle at the ceiling. Holding up her free hand defensively she pleaded, “I promise!”

  Toshiko was still suspicious. They did not know this woman. She had a rifle. She hit Ianto.

  While Toshiko still threatened the woman with the meat hook, Ianto scrambled back to his feet, taking position beside her, ready to attack the woman again.

  “I promise!” the stranger repeated.

  Reluctantly Tosh made a small step backwards. “Okay,” she said, doing her best to remain calm and controlled. “Okay. Give her some space.”

  _Space?_ Ianto was not sure what he was supposed to think about that, and his hurting stomach argued for sticking close to the strange woman, close enough to have the chance to overpower her should her concentration waver. _We have no idea what she’s up to. She can tell us whatever she likes. We still don’t know that she’s not one of the bad guys._

  He glanced at Toshiko who gave the slightest of nods and he changed his stance a little.

  “Thank you,” the woman said, venturing slightly inwards and turning to Ianto. “Were you injured? When they took you?”

  Ianto’s heart skipped a beat as she inched forward, closing the distance between them. His instincts screamed to get away from her, but he did not want to appear scared, though he could not deny that she made him pretty nervous. So he stayed where he was until she made another step forward.

  “Can I see?” she asked. “I’m a nurse.”

  Reflexively Ianto shied back from her as she reached out to touch his face. He did not like to be touched, least of all by her.

  Reacting fast she pulled back her hand and raised it in a placating gesture. She turned to Toshiko who was equally cautious as Ianto. Of course she had seen him avoid her and could not begrudge him his anxiety. After all she had hit him with the rifle.

  “Okay,” the woman tried to assure them. “Okay, okay.” With each okay she backed off one step further. Her voice took on an anxious tone, too, “Does anyone else know you’re here? Have you managed to call for help?”

  Slowly but surely Toshiko also sensed that this woman was more trouble than they already were in. So she retorted rather aggressively, “We don’t need any help.” She glanced at Ianto, searching his support. “There’s three more of us in the village.”

  _Is that a wise decision?_ Ianto thought, turning back to the woman. _We shouldn’t tell her anything about us. Why doesn’t she lie and say we’re expected somewhere or we’re alone? We shouldn’t have given the others away._

  “I can’t help you. I’m sorry.”

  “What do you mean?” Ianto asked. As if that was not pretty obvious as the rifle came back up, pointing at him.

  “I’ve been sent to collect you,” she hissed, anxiety creeping into her voice. “I’ve got to take you to them.”

  “Tell us what’s going on!” Toshiko demanded to know. She was angry now, feeling wound up. Why would she not see that they came to rescue her and whoever probably survived. “We can help.”

  Nervously the woman laughed. Hoarsely she whispered in an anxious tone, “No one’s safe. Every ten years… it takes us again.”

  “What takes you?” Toshiko shouted, unable to keep her anger disclosed any longer. “What is it?”

  “The harvest,” the woman breathed almost tonelessly, terror marking her features.

  They all exchanged looks, then Ianto tried to attack her again, but was stopped by her directing the rifle at him.

  “No!” the woman yelled, swinging the rifle around to aim at Toshiko. “Please, you have to come with me.”

  Realizing that they did not have much of a choice Toshiko let the meat hook drop.

 

xXx

 

  His gun drawn Jack stalked down the stairs into the cellar. He could not deny his nervousness as he went into the first room, his torch raised, aiming with his gun. The beam wandered over shelves and tables, crates and glasses, bottles, ropes.

  At first Jack thought that he stepped into an ordinary storage room. There were lots of supplies they would need for the inn upstairs. But then he noticed something strange.

  _Human!_ Jack realized. _Those body parts in the glass… they’re human!_

  Fighting the urge to puke he stalked further into the next room. He could almost physically feel the presence of their attacker. Someone or something was down here and it was in this room.

  Jack shone with his torch around the room without spotting anything. Then he tensed up, freezing where he stood. He had hit something with his boot. Shining down he found a rifle on the floor.

  Jack stood.

  Listening.

  Thinking.

  Behind him he heard heavy breaths.

  All of a sudden Jack twisted around, his gun pointed in the direction where he supposed the assailant to be. In the corner cowered a creature covered in green military clothes. It moved and by a hair’s breadth Jack would have shot it.

  It reached up to jerk off a hood and revealed the head of a common human male. He looked stricken.

  “Help me,” he begged. “Please, help me.”

  “Did you attack us?” Jack barked, still aiming with his gun.

  “I’m dying,” the man whined, pleading, “Please. Help me. I’ll tell you everything.”

  That sounded promising, so Jack grabbed the man’s arm and roughly _helped_ him to his feet. He dragged him over into the main cellar room, found a switch and turned on a light. Throwing him down on a wooden crate Jack started to tend to his wounds.

  “This’ll help you for a short amount of time,” Jack snarled as he pulled a strip of cloth tight around the man’s injured thigh. “Now start talking.”

  “You’ve got to get help,” he wailed. “I know where you can get some.”

  Now that was not what Jack wanted to hear. Slapping the man hard across the face he growled, “We had a deal. I help you, you tell me where they have taken the boy and,” his voice rose with anger to a shout, “what the hell is going on around here!”

  “You don’t know!” the man laughed out hysterically. Then he panicked when Jack removed the dressing. “What are you doing? Put it back!”

  But Jack did not even waste a thought about the man’s agony. Bending down over him he grabbed his jacket, and getting into his face he snarled, “You need to know something. A long time ago… I was pretty good at torture.” Shifting his position Jack caused him just a little bit of pain. “You see, I had quite a reputation as the go-to-guy. My job demanded it at the time, you see. So, I know where to apply the tiniest amount of pressure to a wound like yours…” Jack dug his fingers in the man’s flesh right below the wound.

  “Ouuu!” the man cried out. Louder and with more enthusiasm he yelped, “You’ve got to stop! You’re gonna kill me? Oh, please! Stop!”

  His whines were pitiful, but Jack was immune.

  “It’s in your power to make me stop,” he snarled, still close to the man’s face. He could smell his fear and see the tears run down his cheek. “Just tell me what I need to know! Because in ten seconds,” he promised, pulling his gun back out of its holster, “I’m gonna find a sharp object.”

  “All right,” the man moaned, giving small squeaks of pain in between, “I’ll tell you everything. Just stop.”

  “Now talk,” Jack hissed, shuddering with the vague feeling that time was running out.

 

tbc…


	7. Time to be bled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your reviews. Feedback is always nice. I simply wrote what I would have liked to see in the episode and hope that you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing. But now off to the next chapter... Enjoy!

  Owen helped Gwen to walk. Leaning on him with most of her weight she slowed both of them down, but she could not walk on her own.

  _At least not far,_ Owen mused, shifting her position slightly. She was not especially heavy, but even her slender form presented a considerable weight as long as he had to support her.

  Into the bargain came a drizzling rain that soaked their clothes. They were walking up a slope what did not make it easier to make progress. Around a patch of bushes they stumbled out on a field path.

  “You sure you’re alright?” Owen asked when he heard Gwen’s suppressed groan. He glanced up ahead where two lights moved toward them. Then he could also hear the motor of the approaching car.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Gwen lied. “I’m fine.”

  Not far ahead the car stopped and when he looked at it again Owen recognized it to be a police car.

  “That’s all we bloody need,” he muttered under his breath, grabbing Gwen tighter.

  “Let me do the talking,” she said as he turned in the car’s direction. “I’ll get rid of him.”

  The officer got out of his vehicle and cautiously approached them.

  “Who are you please?”

  “Special ops,” Gwen told him brusquely. “We’re Torchwood. Have you heard of Torchwood?”

  “What’s that, then?” he asked back suspiciously. “A band is it? What’s wrong with her?”

  “Mate, you wouldn’t understand,” Owen sighed.

  “Stop,” Gwen cut both of them short. “What’s that light over there?”

  “The big house?” the police constable said. “Sort of unofficial village hall. Village meeting tonight,” he explained. “That’s why I’m here. Constabulary report.”

  “C’mon,” Gwen groaned, pulling Owen with her as she stumbled forward.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the constable shouted after them.

  He could not impress the two Torchwood field operatives who made their way up toward the house through the open field now.

  More and more heavily Gwen leaned on Owen and the medic suspected that she would not be up for a fight anymore once they reached the village hall.

  Maybe they would not need to fight.

  _No illusions, Owen,_ he scolded himself. _We would’ve heard from Tosh and Ianto by now if they were all right. We still have no idea what we’re dealing with. They could be injured. They could be trapped somewhere. We don’t even know if they’re at the village hall. All we have are assumptions._

  Hoping against hope that nothing bad had happened to their computer expert and the teaboy he tightened his grip on Gwen and stalked forward, determined to turn the odds to their advantage.

  If he could.

 

xXx

 

  Their march through the hills was quite unpleasant.

  Night had fallen and in the faint light of the moon and stars neither Toshiko nor Ianto could see much of where they were going.

  Their situation did not get better by still being threatened with the rifle. The woman who had come to let them out of the cellar still walked behind them, her weapon directed on them, giving short orders from time to time. She had not spoken for a while as they just had to go straight ahead.

  In the distance Ianto saw a shimmering light.

  _Guess that’s where we’re going,_ he mused. He still hurt where the woman had hit him earlier. It was not really bad, but he still felt it.

  Ianto had thought about attacking her and giving Toshiko an opportunity to escape. For a moment it appeared to be a good idea, but then he realized that she might still have the chance to shoot at least him and probably even Toshiko, so he had hesitated to do it.

  A glance he had exchanged with his colleague even told him to wait and see. They still did not know what they were dealing with. While his attack might enable Toshiko to get away it would do nothing to help them discover what had taken the missing people. When Ianto had looked at her he realized that she wanted to go wherever the woman was taking them to find out what was really going on and what they could do to stop it.

  _If it doesn’t stop us first,_ he thought and cursed inwardly as he stumbled over yet another root or patch of grass. He managed to reduce his momentum, preventing his fall.

  “Don’t dawdle,” the woman reprimanded him. “C’mon. Go up there! To the light!”

  So Ianto complied and followed Toshiko up the slope.

  Drizzling rain began to fall just when they reached the source of the light, an old house that, as far as they could see, looked no different from those where the pub had been. They were pushed through a door and stumbled inside.

  “In there, please,” she directed them, gesturing to the next room with her rifle.

  “If you help us we can stop all of this,” Toshiko told her. “Please.”

  “I’m sorry. Get back!”

  Reluctantly they followed her order, taking a few steps back, and the woman also came completely in. Both Toshiko and Ianto still concentrated on her, mostly because she still threatened them with the rifle, but now that they went further into the house Toshiko noticed something disturbing. Sniffing she turned around to the next room.

  “Oh, God. That stench,” she rasped.

  Ordered by another tip with the weapon the two Torchwood agents ducked under a torn polythene sheet hanging in the doorway.

  They stepped into a horror cabinet.

  Now seeing various organs spread out across a table at the back of the room they knew where the awful stench came from. Bodies strung up inside plastic bags dangled from the ceiling and jars with preserved body parts stood on a table to their right. Intestines lay beside them.

  A slaughter house.

  Meat in all stages of processing.

  It was stinking.

  They were shoved forward and the woman followed them.

  Ianto’s eyes went wide as he took in the horror of the butchery, realizing that the bodies hanging from meat hooks were human. _They’re going to eat us,_ he thought, returning to the horrific mantra, _We’re food. They’re going to eat us. We’re food! Oh, God! We’re food!_

  He gasped in air with his mouth wide open, lips trembling. A glance at Toshiko showed him that her terror was more concealed. She appeared to be calm for all he could tell.

  “Tell us what these creatures are,” she said tonelessly, yet unable to turn her eyes off the atrocity. “Do they look like us?”

  “How else are we gonna look?”

  Startled by the deep male voice Toshiko and Ianto pivoted back around. A man pushed the plastic away and stepped through the doorway.

  The woman laughed.

  The man laughed.

  Toshiko and Ianto were stunned beyond belief and even more so as the pair kissed passionately. From the couple Ianto’s gaze flicked to Toshiko and back. They were still kissing, paying no attention at the two Torchwood agents. Still Ianto tried in vain to process what they had learned. They had assumed that the villagers were attacked by some creature that came through the rift. Now they had to realize that they were dealing with cannibals.

  The kissing continued and Ianto decided that that was as good an opportunity as any other. His attempt to run and push past them was thwarted when the man slugged him in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and making him drop to the floor. The woman raised her rifle, thrusting the muzzle into Toshiko’s face to prevent her from interfering.

  The man grabbed and twisted Ianto’s right arm behind his back and used it as a handle to yank him upright. Ianto tried to rise to his feet and resist, but all he could do was crouch there with his face pressing against the man’s thigh as he struggled feebly and fought to make his lungs take in air, a task which became just that much harder when the man reached over him, shoving him slightly backward to reach for something behind him. Then he felt the cool metal of a handcuff circling his right wrist.

  “There are three more out there,” Ianto heard the woman say.

  “That’s not a problem,” the man answered her and Ianto groaned when the second cuff snapped shut around his left wrist. “How are they?”

  To play it safe the man pressed the handcuff even tighter just when she told him, “They’re in a good state.”

  As the man let go of him Ianto slumped down into a trembling heap of flesh, still struggling for air. His sight still was slightly blurred and so he only peripherally noticed how the man took Toshiko’s arm and kicked in the hollows of her knees to bring her down.

  “I think they’re the best we’ve ever had,” the woman said, lowering her rifle.

  Toshiko moaned as her hands were tied with rope behind her back.

  “Yeah?” the man, presumably the woman’s husband, queried. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Caught the boy. Finally.” Letting go of Toshiko he went over to another figure on the floor and pulled him up to a kneeling position.

  “C’mon!” he said, pulling a jute sack from the boy’s head. “C’mon, will you?”

  Ianto registered all that through a fog that clouded his mind. The pain slowly subsided and he tentatively tried to shift his position. _Food! God! We’re food!_ He still was on his knees, but not balanced well. His insides rumbled.

  “Look, I won’t tell anyone!” Ianto heard a young male voice whine. The boy seemed to be terrified. Well, who would not be scared to death?

  Hands grabbed for Ianto and as he was yanked upright again he realized that it was the woman who held him. He spotted Toshiko who stared with terror widened eyes over her shoulder in the direction where the man and boy were. A hand clawed in Ianto’s hair so that he could not turn his head. Warm air washed over his left cheek when the woman blew him a kiss. She turned his head so that he was forced to look at the boy.

  “Hmmm, look,” she purred into Ianto’s ear.

  His body went rigid with fear and pain. Even when he tried to wind out of her grip he could not get anywhere. The rigidly coupled halves of the handcuffs did not allow any movement.

  “Who is he?” Toshiko demanded to know.

  The man looked back at her, an expression of honest astonishment written in his features, and said, “He’s meat.” He slapped the boy’s cheek and pushed him back down on the ground.

  Petrified Ianto watched that display when he felt the woman’s hand let go of his hair and stroke his head in a strangely tender gesture. Then she kissed him appreciatively on the left cheek.

  The man walked over to Toshiko and Ianto, placing a hand on both their heads.

  “I’m afraid we’re all just meat,” he said, pushing them down as he passed through to the other room.

  Fear lay in Ianto’s stomach like lead, but in gathering there it freed the rest of his body of the rigidity that had taken hold of him. He still was scared to death, but his brain kicked into high gear and thoughts about possible ways to escape shot through his mind.

  He had no idea if any of them could be realized.

  Now both of their captors were in the other room. So he leaned over to Toshiko and whispered, “Get ready to run.”

  Incredulously she stared at him, then through the plastic covered doorway into the living room where the man was picking up a baseball bat. Sucking in a sharp breath she flinched backwards and scrambled to her feet. Ianto got up, too, with a little more difficulty.

  “What are you gonna do?” Toshiko challenged. “Put us on meat hooks?”

  Looking back to his wife who laughed and then strolled away the man came back in.

  “No. Not yet,” he said, approaching Toshiko. His voice took on an appreciative note as he let the end of the bat trail over her left side and said, “You see… meat… has to be tenderized… first.”

  His hand brushed down her right side and probed her pelvis.

  “Good.” He licked his lips.

  Attempting to avoid him she turned her head and met Ianto’s eyes. Her silent plea for help made his heart ache. He had to do something. His only way was to divert their captor’s attention to give Tosh the possibility to run and escape. Reminding her of his earlier words he nodded encouragingly and her dark eyes lit up with fear. _I won’t leave you here,_ they said, and Ianto put all his persuasive power in his look at her.

  Ianto’s heart jumped into his throat when the man let go of Toshiko and came over to him. The young Welshman had to force himself to breathe. He felt his stomach muscles flutter and his shoulders harden. His wrists in the handcuffs hurt as he subconsciously strained against his bonds.

  Standing right in front of him now the man smirked appreciatively as he looked Ianto over from head to toe and back.

  Ianto smirked back, nervously. _Now or never._

  Abruptly he headbutted their captor, making him stumble backwards.

  “Run!” Ianto screamed at Toshiko. “Go get the others!”

  Seeing her dart out through the doorway he tried to follow her but saw the woman come from the front. The man had caught his fall and grabbed Ianto’s arm, stopping his run before he could even reach the doorway.

  A fist connected with Ianto’s chin, throwing him backwards. He crashed hard on the floor. A second later a kick in the stomach winded him. His face contorted with pain and he tried to roll around to protect himself. Peripherally he noticed that the man grabbed something that slid from the shelf with a metallic sound and left the room.

  Looking to his left Ianto saw the boy lying on the ground, bound, helpless, like he was. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. The rifle butt being thrust down over him was the last thing he saw.

 

xXx

 

  Toshiko heard the tumult behind her and back-pedalled for just a second.

  _No!_ she ordered herself. _No! He did it so that you can get away! Don’t let him down now!_

  So she ran as fast as she could with no real idea where she was going. She needed cover and turned to the dark shadows of trees and undergrowth, hoping to be able to hide there.

  Her hands still bound behind her back made it more difficult for her to run. She had no illusions. Toshiko knew that the man would hunt her.

  Now she was in the bushes, branches slapping in her face as she ran through. Her sides began to hurt, but she did not care.

  _Run!_ Toshiko ordered herself. _Run! Run!_

  Uncertain if it was the man following her that she heard she went down behind a bush, hiding by pressing herself flat to the ground. Desperately she tried to keep her breathing down, scared that he would hear her.

  A twig snapped.

  Craning her neck Toshiko tried to catch a glimpse of him. She saw a light dance through the undergrowth. Something metallic blinked in it. When he turned she could see it better.

  A machete.

  “I know you’re here,” he purred and chirruped.

  His laughter sent chills down Toshiko’s spine. When she could not hear him anymore she got up and ran again.

  To her horror he had not gone far so that he was close behind her now. Punching her in her back he made her trip and fall.

  “No one’s coming for you,” he growled, ready to grab and pull her up.

  Wriggling around she kicked him in the crotch. He doubled over and she scrambled to her feet. His groans followed her as she ran.

  Hiding behind a tree she stopped for just a moment to catch a breath. An owl cried. Toshiko looked around but could not see her pursuer. She continued to run.

  “Yes, yes…”

  Excited murmurs echoed through the wood behind her.

  Toshiko ran.

  _Faster,_ she thought, _faster!_

  Her foot caught in a root and she crashed down in a layer of leaves.

  Hearing steps come closer she desperately wriggled to get up again.

  Just a moment later her pursuer was over her, pinning her with his boot on her chest.

  “No more games,” he snarled and knelt down over her. His hands closed around her neck. “Hush, darling, hush.”

  Desperately Toshiko gasped for air, but the iron grip did not grant her that luxury. She saw spots dance before her eyes. She fought to stay lucid, but she knew that she would pass out soon… and die.

 

xXx

 

  _Whoa, she’s getting heavy!_

  Owen did not really mind. Gwen got shot. As her colleague as well as her doctor he was responsible for her. Her arm wrapped around his shoulders she stumbled along beside him. Undergrowth made it more difficult to move.

  “Maybe we should’ve stayed on the road,” Gwen groaned as she stepped into a hollow again. “How far away can that house be? Oh, there it is.”

  Gwen pointed ahead. In a short distance they saw a light. Owen sighed with relief, but then the light moved.

  _Oh, no!_

  They heard leaves rustle and branches snap. Someone was in the brushwood.

  “C’mon,” Gwen hissed between clenched teeth, urging him to hurry forward.

  With a swish and a thump someone crashed in the bushes. Gwen and Owen could hear terrified squeals and then the voice of a man.

  “No,” Owen gasped and abandoned his hold on Gwen in favour for his gun. Raising it to aim he advanced into the undergrowth from where the voices came.

  His heart skipped a beat when he saw a large figure go down over someone on the ground… someone who was Toshiko as Owen recognized even by the panicked groan she uttered before the man grabbed her throat.

  “No more games,” he snarled and closed his hands around her neck. “Hush, darling, hush.”

  Owen felt his adrenaline shoot into his system as he rushed toward the scene.

  _Scene? God, it’s Tosh!_

  Thrusting his gun against the man’s head and lighting his flashlight Owen snarled, “Get off her, or I’ll shoot.”

  No reaction.

  Still the man was pressing on Toshiko’s throat, and Owen felt his insides churn.

  “Get off her, or I’ll shoot!” he yelled.

  When the man still did not react Owen kicked at his head, throwing him off Toshiko. The man rolled aside onto his back, staring up at Owen with hatred contorting his features.

  Behind him Owen heard footsteps and Gwen’s voice.

  “We saw the torchlight,” his colleague said as she cradled the coughing Toshiko in her arms. Holding her tight she was rocking her gently forward and back.

  “They’ve murdered all the villagers!” Toshiko sobbed, still panicked. “They’re cannibalizing the bodies!”

  “Put the gun down,” the man growled aggressively.

  “You’re in no position to negotiate, mate,” Owen snarled, pushing his gun in the bloke’s direction.

  Gwen tried to comfort Toshiko, “It’s alright, it’s alright. You’re safe.” She heard footsteps. Over her shoulder she looked at the constable. He had followed them. Relieved she ordered him, “You can arrest him now!” but the police officer did not react. In her arms Toshiko was shaking terribly. Annoyed Gwen shouted, “I said you can arrest him!”

  From down at his feet Owen heard mad laughter.

  “Are you gonna arrest me, Huw?” the big man chuckled.

  “That’d be a laugh wouldn’t it?” the constable snickered. “My own uncle?” And with that he pulled a gun out and aimed at Owen.

  At once Gwen let go of Toshiko. _He’s armed? An armed constable?_ Drawing her own weapon she trained it on the officer.

  “Put the gun down!” she shouted, “Don’t you hurt him!”

  “Shoot the bastard!” the fallen man spurred on his nephew who moved closer to Owen. “Split his skull!”

  “Put the fucking gun down!” Gwen screamed, her heart beating so hard that it threatened to burst out of her chest.

  “Shoot!”

  “I will shoot you!” Gwen screamed, feeling that she was about to panic. She glanced at Owen who still aimed at the man on the ground while the muzzle of the constable’s gun hovered right in front of his nose.

  “Pull the trigger, Huw!”

  Meeting Gwen’s gaze Owen felt a chill shoot down his spine when he saw her anxiety, but he shook his head. _Too risky a shot._

  So Gwen secured her gun and let it slide out of her grip. Huw took it from her and now aimed at both of them. His uncle crawled to his feet and stepped up to Owen.

  “Why don’t you give me the gun… _mate_.”

  With the constable’s gun pointed directly at the spot between his eyes Owen had no other choice. He gave up his firing stance and held out the gun to him. The man plucked it from his hand and lifted it up, letting the barrel trail over Owen’s left cheek.

  Looking him up and down the man told Owen, “You’ll do fine as steaks and minced meat. I’m sure we can make great meat balls.”

  Owen choked.

  Letting his eyes run over Gwen the man tutted, “You’ll only serve for stew.” Turning to his nephew he demanded, “Huw! Your handcuffs.”

  “Oh, right.” He put his gun away. “Here, uncle Evan.”

  He held them out to him, but Evan gestured him to bind Owen and so Huw snapped the cuffs shut around Owen’s wrists.

  “Let’s go,” Evan said. “Time to lead the lambs to the slaughter.”

  While Evan stayed with Owen, Huw turned to Gwen and Toshiko. Gwen helped her colleague up and, constantly threatened with the gun, the three of them were herded towards the light in the distance, to the unofficial village hall.

 

xXx

 

  The blow from the rifle butt did not render him unconscious. It had glanced off his forehead, sliding to his left. Just for a moment everything had gone dark, but then voices filtered through the fog that clouded Ianto’s mind. He even could distinguish the woman’s, Helen’s, from other male ones. Her husband’s was not among them. Surely he was chasing Toshiko.

  Trying to turn his head to look for the boy made Ianto groan.

  He heard the scurry of shoes and the flutter of the plastic in the doorway as the men came closer.

  “Look what we have here,” one purred. “Looks delicious.”

  The others laughed.

  “Yeah, Helen and Evan made a good catch this time.”

  “And there will be more,” Helen added cheerfully.

  Ianto shuddered. A lump of lead seemed to be where his stomach should be. It hurt when they grabbed his upper arms to pull him up. They looked him up and down, grinning, cheering, whistling appreciatively. Someone prodded his chest, walked around him, prodded his back. Ianto felt like livestock, examined before an auction, and if he thought about it he was exactly that. Now one man took his chin and lifted his head.

  “Oi, these eyes. Aren’t they beautiful? I think I’ll put them in formaldehyde.” He grinned. “You’re such a pretty boy.”

  “Yes, he is,” a rather fat man agreed. “He looks good enough to eat.”

  They were laughing heartily about that pun. There was a third man, thin like a beanpole, who now pushed his friend aside and took Ianto’s chin, saying, “Oi, he’s cute. Almost too cute to be eaten.”

  “And what would you want to do with him instead?” the first man asked. “Keep him as pet?”

  They all laughed out loud about that joke.

  “If you keep him we could milk him,” Fatboy chuckled, reaching for Ianto’s crotch.

  “Whoa!” Ianto struggled against their hold. “No!” He kicked at the men and wriggled, reared and yelled.

  Nothing helped.

  They kept on petting him, but then they changed their mind and started to punch him. The first blow hit his side, then the blows rained down on his body.

  Ianto screamed. He could not help it.

  Over and over they hit him, first with their fists, then one of them took a wooden stick to beat him with it. They had to let go of him to strike properly and Ianto went down, first on his knees and then fell to his side.

  “No! Please! Don’t!” he begged. “Why? Noooo!”

  But they just kept on hitting.

  “Can’t you do something about that screaming? It’s annoying,” Fatboy suddenly complained.

  “Sure,” Walking Stick snorted, reaching for something on the table.

  Hands grabbed for Ianto’s head, held him still and forced his mouth open. They pushed a dirty cloth between his teeth and knotted it behind his head. Then he fell back to the ground when they let go of him.

  Out of widened blue eyes he stared up at his tormentors who abruptly stopped.

  “I can’t do that,” Beanpole groaned.

  “What?”

  “I can’t beat him up and chop him to pieces if he’s looking at me like that.”

  For a moment the men stared at each other incredulously, then they laughed out loud.

  “You didn’t have such problems with the others,” Fatboy teased and rubbed his big belly. Searching, he looked around to pick up the jute bag that had previously been over the boy’s head then. Bending down he roughly pulled it over Ianto’s head.

  “Problem solved,” he declared. To emphasize his statement he swung his club to let it crash down on Ianto’s chest, making the young man groan with pain.

_Oh, dear God.  He’s going to beat me to death, isn’t he_ _?_ Ianto thought. He tried to brace himself for the blows that were about to come, and managed only to grunt when he felt the bat make contact, but mentally he screamed out. _Mam! Oh, God, help me, Mam!_

  The beating continued and Ianto screamed and sobbed into the gag, helpless, the metal of the cuffs cutting into his wrists, gag and jute bag restricting his breathing.

  _Mam, I’m sorry I didn’t return your call last Sunday, or the Sunday before that, or, well, since your birthday, really. I was just so busy taking care of Lisa, and then she died, but you thought she was already dead months ago._

Ianto hurt all over his body and prayed for either a quick rescue or a merciful death, though he would definitely prefer the first.

_I just knew I couldn’t talk to you without telling you everything that had happened, all that I’d done. I needed you, Mam. Really I did, I just didn’t dare tell you. Please, please forgive me._ “Mam!”

  Ianto was not aware that the last _Mam_ was screamed into the gag when a particularly vicious blow made contact around his left kidney.

  Finally they let go of him and Ianto lay in a semi-conscious state, trying to fight sickness and nausea. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice whispered that he had to avoid vomiting by all means. Gagged like he was he would suffocate on it. Somehow he knew, but it was no coherent thought.

  The men gathered in the other room, talking, maybe drinking. They were having a ball, looking forward to the slaughter feast. Then there were other sounds, feet shuffling, stomping, shouts, male and female.

  “Who are those people?”

  “Tosh?” Ianto groaned, garbled and barely audible. Yes, that was Toshiko’s voice.

  Laughter followed her question.

  “This is our village,” Helen cheered.

  “The villagers are dead!”

  More laughter. Ianto’s insides rumbled and his body convulsed, trying to keep from throwing up. He was so miserable that he wished for it to be over. This was what he deserved. His penance. He heard them talk, but could not understand everything. His blood was rushing in his ears and he hoped that the earth would stop spinning.

  “You sick fuckers!”

  _That’s Owen,_ Ianto realized. _Always with an attitude._

  The villagers were in a really good mood, getting good laughter out of mistreating the Torchwood team. Once again Ianto heard them move, the plastic fluttered and steps drew nearer, lots of steps.

  Groaning.

  Thumps.

  Coughs.

  Moans.

  Rustle of clothes.

  A soothing voice to his right side. “Are you okay?”

  Heavy footfall.

  “Where’s Ianto?” he heard Toshiko demand to know. “What have you done with him?”

  Heavy steps of a man closed in on him and he suspected that it was the one he had heard being called Evan. He was grabbed hard by the back of his neck. Roughly he got forced up in a kneeling position. Then the jute bag got pulled off his head.

  “Ah!”

  That was Owen who gasped at whatever sight greeted him. The young doctor certainly would not mourn him. Ianto still held his eyes closed, hoping against hope that nothing worse would happen if he pretended to be unconscious.

  Painfully fingers dug in his face, pressed on his lips and under his nose. The arm wrapped around his head in a tight grip, preventing him from any attempt at escape.

  Evan slapped Ianto across the face. “Wake up, man.”

  Realizing that any pretence of unconsciousness was pointless Ianto opened his eyes. They grew wide with terror at the sight of the kitchen, his team mates on their knees. Toshiko and Owen stared as horrified at him as he at them.

  Brutally Evan strengthened his hold on Ianto and laughed manically.

  “Yeah, time to be bled,” Evan said, obviously enjoying himself as he fetched a meat cleaver from the table. “Like veal.”

  Ianto groaned. _God, no! Nooo!_ He panted, tried to struggle, but he was defenceless.

  “Takes a long time… but definitely makes the meat taste better,” Evan teased, tightening his grip even more and exposing Ianto’s throat.

  Ianto screamed into the cloth that was stuffed into his mouth. Sheer panic made him buck in the merciless clasp, but with little success. _No! Oh, God! Noooo! Not like that! Pleeeeease!_

  For one horrible moment he was back in the Hub, Jack’s Webley pressing against his head, then it was the filthy cannibal once more. In a tiny calm corner deep in his mind a voice hissed, _Well, Jack, apparently fate is going to correct your mistake._

  Out of widened eyes Ianto peered down at the blade that was closing in on his neck…

  …and somehow, quite unexpectedly, he sensed the strangest reassuring presence seep into his mind.

 

tbc…


	8. A ruddy old tractor

  _What a pansy,_ Jack thought as he climbed the stairs back up to the Tap House. _I wonder how he survived as long as he has. Now I need to get to that village hall._

  His captive had given him the general direction, exactly where Gwen and Owen headed in search for Toshiko and Ianto. They were well ahead and Jack feared that he might not be fast enough even if he ran.

  _I hope I won’t be too late! I can’t be too late! That’s impossible, unthinkable!_

  Darting out of the inn Jack turned and started to run. He did not get far when he stopped. Looking back over his shoulder he contemplated his idea. Running back and climbing on the tractor took only seconds. The key was in the ignition and the machine started readily.

  _Okay, it’s not a race car, but it’s faster than running._

  Flooring the accelerator he made the tractor buck forward, then it took him down the road toward the distant village hall. Its headlights did not shine far along the path and Jack had to react fast if he wanted to avoid skidding off the track.

  _This is taking too long,_ Jack thought. _Shit! But I wouldn’t be faster by foot. I wish I had the SUV. When we’re back I should ask Tosh to develop and install a remote control._

  His heart beat fast and that was not due to the strain of steering the old and heavy tractor. It beat with anxiety. He was scared for his team.

  _Underestimating the danger was my first mistake,_ Jack thought. _I was too confident that this had nothing to do with the Rift, but it has been far more dangerous than the alien threats we have faced so far. All I wanted was an opportunity to get us out of familiar territory. We should have gone to the rope course._

  While he was still brooding about his misjudgement he sensed an unfamiliar but quite strong agitation well up inside of him. At first he could not place it, but then he realized that it was not his own emotion that he felt.

  It was sheer desperation, a cry for help that reverberated in Jack.

  “Ianto!” Jack called out.

  Cursing Jack chased the tractor through the night, hoping that he would arrive in time. In the distance he saw the lights of the house that did not seem to get any closer.

 

xXx

 

  From outside a mysterious rumbling grew louder and louder, and the bowls on the table started to dance from the vibrations of the sound. Helen looked terrified at the shaking dishes.

  Ianto could feel the tremors even though he was shaking in Evan’s hold. He could not stop crying and whined into his gag. Doing his best to not let the panic get a hold on him was not enough. He was scared to death.

  Cold was the edge of the meat cleaver against his neck.

  Ianto screamed.

  Still he heard Evan’s rather mumbled “What the fuck…?” as the man let go of Ianto and made a step forward, taking in the shaking dishes with surprise.

  The rumble grew even louder and then the wooden gate to the other room burst under the impact of an old tractor. Ianto was as shocked as everyone else, cowering back and finding himself enveloped by a pair of arms. They wrapped around his upper body, holding him tight.

  Ianto did not recognize Gwen at once. Actually he did not even care who held him. Stunned he watched Jack jump down from the tractor, a shotgun at the ready.

  _Boom! Boom!_

  The shotgun spit lead

  “Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!”

  Jack kept screaming with an all consuming rage as he emptied the magazine, taking out the men first.

  Blood splattered.

  Glass rained.

  Shots thundered.

  Then Helen grabbed her rifle and aimed at Jack. The last two shots of the shotgun hit her in the shoulder and the chest, making her tumble backwards before crashing down. Quickly Jack grabbed his Webley and the constable went down, too. As his gun slid aside he tried to grab it.

  “Oh, really?” Jack yelled and fired his pistol, shattering Huw’s hand. The constable’s howl filled the kitchen.

  Ianto was shaking.

  He could not stop his body from shuddering involuntarily. The stress released and he just could not stop.

  “Shhh,” he heard Gwen whisper in his ear. “Shhh… ‘S okay. Got you.”

  Still he could not control his body. He felt her reach for the gag and pull it gently out of his mouth. Ianto cried out with fear that still lingered. His vision was blurred, his nose about to block and he fought for breath with painfully hitching gasps.

  With horror he realized that Gwen let go of him. He sunk to the ground where he lay on his side. Glancing up he saw Gwen free Toshiko’s hands and then, with satisfaction, noticed Jack who pressed his gun under Evan’s chin.

  “No, Jack! Don’t do it!” Gwen shouted.

  “These people don’t deserve warnings!” Jack yelled back, teeth gritted with rage, pushing the gun harder under the man’s jaw.

  _No!_ Ianto thought. _No? That man was about to kill me! Why would I want to stop Jack?_ He shuddered. This time from his own thoughts. _I wouldn’t want Jack to kill him for Jack’s sake,_ he realized, surprised by his presence of mind. _It would be cold blooded murder._

  “Let me question him,” Ianto heard Gwen plead with Jack. “I have to understand. I want to know why. Or otherwise _this_ … _this_ is too much!”

  _Otherwise?_ Ianto shuddered in his bonds. This definitely was too much. At least for him. In vain he tried to get out of the handcuffs that still held his arms behind his back. Also in vain he tried to lock his gaze with one of his team mates. They all were busy.

  “They’re injured,” Toshiko threw in. “They need to get to a hospital.”

  But Gwen was having none of it. Seeing that Jack would not make a decision she said, “Owen, you control the bleeding, then phone the police!” Then she turned to their captain again, pleading with him, “Jack! Please, give me an hour with him. Don’t tell me you don’t want to know, too?”

  Ianto watched Jack. The captain was marvellous in his rage. He saw the muscles tense and heard his breaths rush. It looked as if Jack would kill the man. There was no mercy in his eyes, his features hard, jaws clenched, posture rigid. His gun was still pressed under Evan’s chin, his trigger finger only a millimetre away from releasing the bullet.

  And within a second the tension was gone. Jack let the hand with the gun sink and put the weapon back in its holster. His features were expressionless. It was as if someone had turned a switch.

  Jack yanked Evan to his feet and shoved him towards the big hole made by the tractor. Gwen followed him and they vanished out of Ianto’s sight. As he watched them go Ianto struggled to sit up, but he sank back to the ground. Lying on his side Ianto squinted up at the horrid collection of body parts in glasses and complete bodies hanging from the ceiling and shuddered again.

  _We were so close to ending up on meat hooks, too. Tosh’s escape bought us some time. But if Jack wouldn’t have come in the right moment…_

  His thoughts trailed off. Suddenly he could feel Evan’s hands on him again, the steel against his throat. He gagged.

  Unexpectedly he was grabbed and pulled up to sit on the floor. Someone was behind him and Ianto struggled, trying to wriggle away.

  “Shhh.”

  He knew that voice. All his anxiety seemed to be washed away upon recognizing her voice and he leaned into her embrace.

  _I didn’t see her coming,_ he thought. _But it’s good that Tosh is here._

  “You’re still bound,” she murmured, sounding surprised. “I’m sorry, Ianto. I’ll go and find the key.”

  When she let go of him he threatened to drop back down, but she caught him and helped him to fold his legs so that he sat on his own. Then Toshiko went to the shelf where Evan had taken the handcuffs from, but there was no key. Looking over her shoulder at Ianto she smiled apologetically. “I’ll be right back. Promise.”

  Ianto saw her leave and his heart began to race again. Painfully slowly the minute she needed to return ticked by. Then she walked to another shelf and opened a wooden box. Searching inside she finally found the key and hurried over to Ianto. Squatting back down beside him she opened his cuffs.

  His heart flowing over with gratitude Ianto wanted to throw his arms around her and hug her, but he could hardly move. His arms were numb for a short while before they started to prickle. It did not take very long, but during that time his arms were as good as useless. Feeling his strength return Ianto reached out for Toshiko and pulled her into his embrace. The pain shooting through his body as well as his relief to be finally free drove tears in his eyes and he cried out with mental and physical agony, shaking in Toshiko’s arms that she wrapped around him in return.

  “Shhh, it’s okay,” she murmured. “I’ve got you. Everything’s all right now.”

  _All right?_ Ianto was far from being all right. He wanted to cling to her, but he could not hold on to her that strongly.

  “I’m sorry, mate,” someone said beside him. “I should’ve been with you right away, but one of them was bleeding heavily. He would’ve bled out…”

  _Owen,_ Ianto realized, not listening to what else the medic said. Sensing that Toshiko gently pushed him off her he tightened his hold. He did not want her to go. _Stay! Please, stay!_

  “Ianto, please,” Toshiko murmured close to his ear. “Let Owen look you over, okay?”

  Stubbornly he shook his head.

  “Ianto.” Toshiko did not really know what to do now. “We can sit and talk or just sit together when Owen’s through with you. C’mon. Let him have a look at you.”

  More than reluctantly Ianto let go of his colleague. As he did he felt a tremor course through his body.

  “Okay, Ianto,” Owen said. “Let’s get out of here.” Taking his co-worker’s right arm he put it around his shoulders. Together they left the butchery and found shelter at a neighbouring house.

  “Over here,” Toshiko suggested and pulled a chair out from under the dining table.

  “Are the others secured?” Gwen asked when she spotted her team mates.

  “They won’t go anywhere,” Owen told her.

  “And I’ll make sure of that,” Jack said and left to stand guard in the other house.

  Gwen looked worried when he left. In one corner of the room the cannibals’ leader Evan sat bound in an armchair. So she was torn between guarding him and following Jack to make sure that he did not do anything stupid.

  “Go,” Toshiko said. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  Relieved Gwen pushed one of the villagers’ guns into Toshiko’s hands and left. Toshiko leaned the rifle against the table and shot a sharp glance at Evan who did not react at all.

  In the meantime Owen had manoeuvred Ianto onto the chair and helped him to take his shirt off. One look at Ianto was enough to reveal several bruises and abrasions. Getting his medical kit Owen started to treat those injuries.

  “How are you feeling, Ianto?” he demanded to know.

  “Okay,” Ianto groaned.

  “Don’t lie to me, mate,” Owen admonished him. “I can see that they roughed you up. Where do you hurt?”

  “I don’t know, Owen,” he growled. “Everything hurts.”

  “Does it hurt when you’re breathing?”

  “Owen, my head hurts, my body hurts…” _My bloody pride hurts, too_. “I can’t decide…” Ianto grimaced when the breath he took was a little too deep. _God, that hurts!_

  “I take it that’s a yes,” Owen remarked wryly and started to prod Ianto’s ribcage.

  “Uuuuugh,” Ianto groaned.

  “I see,” Owen murmured. “I should bandage that up.”

  Carefully, almost gently, he shoved Ianto’s shirt up and looked encouragingly to Toshiko, asking her to hold it while he began to wrap the dressing around Ianto’s upper body.

  “There’s not much I can do about it here,” Owen told him, as he drew the shirt back down. “I’m gonna give you a thorough examination when we’re back at the Hub.” Seeing that Ianto looked more than just sceptical he added, “Unless you want to go to hospital with the medics.”

  Ianto bristled. “No,” he moaned.

  “Then let me do my job.”

  Realizing that Owen would not tolerate any resistance Ianto submitted himself to his co-worker’s administrations. Once the medic was finished Ianto tried to get dressed again and was astonished by how difficult that proved to be. He could not quite suppress a groan when he pushed his arms through the sleeves of his shirt. Buttoning it up again was easier, but he still hurt. Damn, he even hurt when he did nothing but sit and breathe.

  “Tosh?” he asked.

  “Yes, Ianto?”

  At once she was back by his side. Or did she never leave? Was he mistaken or was there concern flickering in her eyes?

  “Will you come with me to get the SUV?”

  Her eyes widened with astonishment. “Are you serious?”

  “Sure.”

  His attempt to get up from the chair was stopped by Owen. The doctor grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back down as hard as he dared.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Owen told him. “The cannibals are caught. Tosh will manage alright without you, teaboy.”

  “I’m sure she will, but I happen to prefer her bedside manner to yours.”

  “What’s wrong with my bedside manner?” Owen complained.

  “I don’t know… do you have any?”

  Once more Ianto tried to get up, but this time he was stopped by Gwen and Jack’s return.

  “The police will be here anytime soon,” Gwen argued. “Let me question him now, Jack! C’mon! I need to know! I _have_ to know!”

  Jack rolled his eyes, which she could not see as she walked right behind him.

  “How are you doing?” Gwen asked when she strolled over to Toshiko and Ianto.

  “Fine, considering,” Toshiko told her. “Jack? I agree with Gwen. If we want to get some answers from him then we should try before the police get here.”

  Still Jack did not look convinced. Looking at Toshiko and Ianto his scowl even darkened and his insides churned with anxiety. By a hair’s breadth he would have lost them!

  Jack had seen a lot of terrible things in his life, but Gwen was right, he did not really understand what had driven those people to kill and eat other humans. Actually he did not know if he needed to understand it. Knowing that evil hid anywhere and in any shape usually was enough for him.

  _But I can’t expect them to accept that just because I can,_ he reminded himself and made his decision. Turning brusquely on his heels he went with long energetic strides over to Evan and grabbed his arm hard.

  Then he yanked him out of his chair and shoved him toward the door. It was worth the effort to try and make that man confess. So Jack herded him out in search of a place to talk. A quick look over his shoulder confirmed that Gwen was following them. _Good._

  Ianto was left with Toshiko and Owen and he rolled his eyes inwardly.

  “I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but I’ll go and finish my job,” he said and got up before Owen could stop him.

  Toshiko hesitated for only a second before she hurried after him.

 

xXx

 

  They found a room in the neighbouring house. Jack pushed Evan into a chair and shoved him at the table. There he sat and stared at the place opposite of him where Gwen sat down in the chair.

  Former police constable Gwen Cooper was at a loss, actually. She knew that she wanted to question him, but now that she sat face to face with the man who led the group who tried to kill and eat not only her but also her team mates and who had cannibalized over a dozen innocent people passing the mountain range she did not know what to say. So she just sat for a moment, watching him, but getting nothing out of his expressionless features. To her own consternation he looked like a bashed rabbit and she felt her rage well up again.

  _Don’t go there. If you show him your anger he’ll only get some morbid fascination out of it._

  More time passed and out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack, who stood to Evan’s right side, shifted his position restlessly. _Okay, here we go…_

  “The whole village was involved,” Gwen stated, deliberately keeping her voice low.

  “Every generation,” Evan replied. “Our tradition. Once a decade. Target those travelling through. Those most likely to disappear.”

  “And butcher them?”

  Intently she watched him just stare back at her.

  “What sort of people are you that you wake up in the morning and think, this is what I am gonna do?”

  His only reaction was a short sniffle.

  “Why do you do it?” Gwen tried to coax him into talking, getting nothing more than just that stare out of him. “C’mon. Make me understand.”

  Now he leaned slightly forward. In a low and calm voice he asked, “Why do you care?”

  Gwen did not hesitate for a second. “Because I’ve seen things you would _never_ believe, and _this_ is the only thing I can’t understand.”

  A content smile crept on his features as he said amused, “So keep on wondering.”

  That was too much.

  “Tell me!” Gwen exploded. “I need to know why!”

  Evan did not react at all and Jack was thoroughly fed up with him.

  “That’s enough!” he snarled, taking Evan’s upper arm. “Time to go.”

  But this time Evan resisted. Still staring at Gwen he made himself heavy to not be pulled up from his chair.

  Fixating the former police constable he murmured, “I’ll tell you something… if you let me whisper.”

  Shooting forward Gwen grabbed his arm there where Jack held him. Demandingly she returned his stare.

  “Okay.”

  Feeling Jack’s hold lessen Evan leaned forward over the table to reach Gwen who met him halfway. There, a tone of insane amusement in his voice, he whispered in her ear, “Cause it made me happy.”

  Gwen was thunderstruck.

  “C’mon! Out!” Jack barked and tightened his grip on the man to drag him away.

  Still leaning over the tabletop, unable to move or even breathe, Gwen was left to the horror filling her head.

  _Happy! How could something like butchering other people make him happy?_

  A moment later she was able to drop back down in her chair where she sat stiff as a poker, trying to process what she had learned from Evan.

  “Happy,” she tonelessly repeated the word that still rang in her ears. “Happy.”

  As nobody came to collect her she sat there unmoving, caught in her whirling thoughts that returned over and over again to one word.

  _Happy._

 

tbc...


	9. Chilling out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always wondered about the sudden end of Countrycide. Where the show had to stick with the set length of the episode, fanfiction can explore further. I hope you'll like it. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

  Once outside the house Toshiko did not need to hurry anymore. As soon as he was out of Owen’s sight Ianto slowed his steps considerably. Now they were walking in the rather casual stroll they had assumed before they were taken.

  “You know where you’re going?” Toshiko demanded to know.

  “Same way we were coming,” he told her. “We were close to the car when they took us.”

  “Is this the same way?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know?” Though it was pretty early morning it was still dark, but for Toshiko the hills all looked the same anyway.

  “I remember.”

  _Great,_ she thought. _Hope you remember right._

  Actually Ianto was not one hundred percent sure, but he figured that about eighty-seven percent would have to do, too.

  They walked in silence, both letting their minds wander.

  Toshiko really missed her equipment. Since after the attack they did not even have that last PDA with which Ianto had traced the SUV. So she could not rely on any scanner or GPS now, and as she was lost on her own in this kind of terrain she could only follow Ianto and hope that he knew where they were going.

  Furtively she glanced at him.

  _I wouldn’t have thought that he’d do that._ _He knew that he had no chance at all against that bloke but still he hit him to give me a chance to get away._

  Her throat corded up with that thought.

  _He could also be dead. I ran… the cannibal right behind me… and Ianto, Ianto all alone with that woman. And the other men. What could have happened while I was away? What_ did _happen?_

  She remembered the horror she had felt when she was shoved back into the slaughter room and could not see Ianto anywhere. For a few terrifying seconds she thought he was dead. So she blurted out her question about his whereabouts. God, she had been so relieved when she saw her hunter pull Ianto up from the ground.

  Her relief died a second later when Evan put the meat cleaver against Ianto’s neck.

  Ianto’s groan and horrified scream, muffled by the gag, had given her the creeps. She had tried to wriggle out of her bonds again, without success. Her own fear had paralyzed her. There had been nothing she could do. She was helpless. All she could do was watch.

  Toshiko shuddered.

  The vividness of her memories made her insides constrict once more and goose bumps settled on her back.

  _When we were held captive in that cellar he appeared to be about to lose it,_ Toshiko remembered. _I can still hear him_ _asking_ _me,_ And who protects us _? And then? When we were in the slaughter house he was the one who pulled himself together and took the initiative. Back then there had been nothing to see of his anxiety._

Then she remembered something else. It was something she had only noticed peripherally at that moment but it was still disconcerting to see… that small smile on Ianto’s face just before he headbutted the cannibal to give her a chance to escape.

  _He knew he would die,_ Toshiko realized. _Ianto’s been through a lot of bad stuff before. So he knew that we were beat and when he saw a chance to get one of us, me, out he seized it. He sacrificed himself for me._

  She swallowed hard. It was hard to take. They had not treated him especially good after they found out about his girlfriend, let him sense their hurt about his betrayal, their anger and disappointment. She understood why Jack let him stay, but she could not ignore her own feelings. Even though she had tried to meet Ianto with professionalism she was certain that she had failed him.

  _I surely failed to take care of him when we were attacked… and then it turned out that he was protecting me._

  Toshiko felt guilty. Ianto was by far the youngest of their team. They had to take the responsibility for him.

  “What are you brooding about?” Ianto suddenly cut the silence with his deep Welsh accent.

  “Um…” He had caught her off guard.

  “What is it?” he prodded. “Feeling guilty because you couldn’t protect me?”

  _Is he psychic?_ Toshiko was stunned and at a loss for what to say.

  “Or are you angry because I couldn’t keep him busy enough for you to escape?”

  Toshiko felt winded by his words. He sounded absolutely earnest and she was mortified by the realization that he honestly believed she might be angry with him. It drove tears into her eyes.

  “Ianto,” she panted helplessly. “I didn’t…”

  “It’s okay,” he interrupted her, sounding resigned. “You have every right to be mad at me.”

  “Ianto…” was all she could get out.

  “It’s true, Tosh. If I would’ve paid attention to our surroundings when we were searching for the SUV you wouldn’t have been caught in the first place. We should’ve stayed together. I let you down. I’m sorry.”

  While he spoke he marched down the track obliviously as fast as his battered body allowed.

  “Ianto?” Toshiko gasped, almost breaking down crying. It was all she could do not to lose control as she watched him vanish into the darkness when she could not keep up. “Ianto.”

  A moment later he reappeared. When he stopped in front of her Toshiko could see in the scarce light that his face appeared to be as white as his shirt. Well, however white both were under all the dirt from the cellar and the slaughter house.

  “Ianto, I’m sorry,” she moaned, reaching out for him.

  He seemed to be surprised.

  “What for?” he asked, seriously.

  It broke Toshiko’s heart. “T-that you… feel that way,” she choked. “We must’ve been horrible to you.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he murmured. “If I want to be part of the team I have to act like one of the team. I had the chance to rescue at least one of us and I screwed it up. I let you down.”

  “No, Ianto. I let you down. I let myself be caught by surprise and brought us into that precarious situation. If anyone is to blame, it is me.”

  “That’s what I meant, Toshiko. We shouldn’t have split up. I knew that and left you alone when I was going up the hill. It’s my fault.”

  With that he turned around and walked on.

  All Toshiko could do was follow him as he did not look like he was going to keep talking to her. He wanted to find the bloody car and return to the others. That was what she wanted anyway. Anything to get the bloody hell out of those hills.

  “There it is,” Ianto suddenly announced and fell into a fast trot.

  When Toshiko caught up with him she saw the SUV…

  … and Ianto who leaned against its side heavily, supporting himself with both hands pressed against the glass of the side windows.

  “Ianto!” she gasped, rushing to his side. “Are you okay?”

  “D-don’t… know,” he panted.

  “Come,” she said, trying to peel his hands off the car. “Let’s sit down a moment, okay?”

  But Ianto shook his head vigorously.

  Obviously that was not a good idea. A shudder passed his body and then another. He started to tremble.

  “Ianto?”

  He reached for her, clawing at her cardigan, shaking even harder. Then he went down on his knees, coughing. Toshiko just stepped aside in time to avoid getting splashed when he threw up. Carefully she wrapped her arms around him. She still held him to her chest when he was fighting for each breath, shivering, clearly exhausted and drenched in sweat.

  _We shouldn’t sit on the cold grass,_ Toshiko thought. _It’s still wet from the rain._ Longingly she looked over her shoulder to the dark form of the car. How should she get him there? Holding him she had noticed that Ianto was astonishingly light, but not nearly light enough for her to move him.

  “Ianto?” she asked tentatively for his attention. “Can you get up? We should get into the car.”

  “Wha…?” he groaned.

  “Come. Help me. I’m cold. Let’s get into the SUV.”

  Sceptically he glanced at the vehicle. He did not know how to get up from the ground, let alone the two yards over to the car and up in the seat.

  “C’mon,” Toshiko said. “Up with you!”

  She pulled on his arm and he slowly complied, fighting to get to his feet. Once he was standing he swayed slightly and Toshiko wrapped an arm around him to steady him. Then she helped him to the car.

  _Thank God, it’s not locked,_ Toshiko thought when she opened the door to the backseat and assisted Ianto climbing in. _I just hope that they left the key…_

  No, they did not.

  At least it was not in the ignition. Sighing with frustration Toshiko searched for the key, but could not find it.

  “Shit,” she hissed. Fortunately Ianto did not hear her or he ignored her unusual expression. “Need something…” she mumbled and got out of the car to look in the boot. A moment later she returned with a tool and it took her under ten seconds longer to start the car. “Too easy,” she muttered under her breath, though she was glad that the motor was running now. She sighed. Looking over her shoulder she checked on Ianto.

  “You okay?”

  “Hm hmmm.”

  “Okay, let’s drive back then.” Toshiko switched on the headlights. Sitting securely in the vehicle now made the hills appear less scary. Still another shudder went through Toshiko. She took a deep breath and put the car in gear. Slowly she steered down the path they came back to the village hall.

 

xXx

 

  Jack had brought the _thing_ that called itself Evan Sherman back to the other monsters in human shells. That was what they were for Jack. He would not have been surprised if they had turned out to be aliens hiding in the hulls of those men and women, but deep down in his soul he knew that that would not happen.

  For once the monstrosity they encountered was not of alien nature.

  _What did Gwen say? That she saw things one would never believe, and this was the only thing she couldn’t understand? I don’t think that there is anything to understand. What is going on in those creatures’ minds will always be beyond us._

  He shoved the man down in his chair and turned to stand guard by the door. He looked at Owen who was squatting beside one of the cannibals, treating her injuries. He silently admired the young man. Not that long ago they were about to butcher him and his team mates and now he was dressing their wounds.

  _He’s completely in doctor mode,_ Jack thought. _All that counts right now is that they’re injured and need his help. I guess that his repulsion will come later._

  _Gwen’s feelings have been all too clear. She’s still unable to get her head around what happened. I’m pretty sure that she’ll get a headache from trying… if she doesn’t have one already._

  Jack looked out into the darkness for any sign of the arriving police or an ambulance, but there was nothing. Then something hit him.

  “Owen? Where are Tosh and Ianto?”

  “Your stubborn Welshman mumbled something about finishing his job and off he went,” Owen grumbled. “And Tosh followed him.”

  Jack frowned deeply, both at Owen’s words and at Ianto for running off like that. Didn’t he tell them to stay where they were? _Or did I only think I did?_

_And when did he become ‘my’ stubborn Welshman?_

  _We don’t even know where they went. It’s still night. They could’ve gone anywhere._

  Still his anger did not want to manifest. His worry got the upper hand and he wondered why Ianto of all people had to leave to get the bloody car.

   _Then again it’s not that big a surprise,_ Jack thought. _Like Owen said, I gave him an order earlier and he’s_ _going to follow orders come hell or high water, the stubborn fool._ _Always determined, always meticulous, no matter what he does_ _. Still I wouldn’t have thought that he would run off_ _so soon after almost becoming dinner for those… things._

  Once more he glanced at Owen and let his gaze wander over the bound cannibals. He decided that he could leave them alone for a moment and went to check on Gwen. When he entered the other room he saw her sitting at the table right where they had left her. It looked as if she had not moved an inch the whole time.

  “Happy,” she mumbled tonelessly and then more incredulously, her voice almost breaking, “Happy.”

  “Gwen?” Jack said quietly. “Why don’t you come over with me?”

  “Happy…”

  “Gwen?”

  Jack became nervous when she did not react to him. He did not know what to do, how to respond to her, and considered calling Owen.

  “Happy, Jack?” she asked, still staring straight ahead. “Happy?”

  “I don’t have an explanation, Gwen,” Jack admitted, laying a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently. “I don’t think there is any.”

  “Happy,” she sighed. “Jack? Can I stay here for a little longer? I don’t think that I can bear being in the same room with them right now.”

  Jack hesitated only for a moment before he agreed. He was on his way out when a thought struck him.

  “Gwen? Where’s Kieran?”

  “Kieran?” she replied, clearly confused.

  “The boy who shot you?” Jack replied equally puzzled. “Where is he?”

  Now Gwen finally looked at him, her dark eyes widening. “I have no idea. Isn’t he with the rest of the group?”

  “Nope.”

  “Did Tosh or Ianto see him?”

  “I can’t ask them. They’re not here,” Jack grumbled, feeling his anger and concern return now that he was reminded of their other two team members.

  “Where are they? I thought they were with Owen, guarding the c-ca… can…” She could not force the word over her lips.

  “The cannibals,” Jack provided. “That’s what I thought, too, but Owen said Ianto wanted to go and get our SUV.”

  “Do we have any idea where it is?” Gwen gasped.

  “Obviously Ianto did.”

  “And so he ran off?” Gwen panted incredulously. “Great idea!”

  “Yeah…” Jack growled. _And I’ll read him the riot act for it._

  “We should go and find Kieran,” Gwen suggested.

  “Yep. You’re right,” Jack agreed. “I need to check back with Owen, though.” As he entered the room with their prisoners he asked the doctor, “Can you finish up your treatment and guard them from the doorway?”

  “Well, I’m almost done, here…”

  “Kieran’s gone, we need to find him,” Jack snarled. “So can you do it or not? I won’t leave if you can’t.”

  “Yeah, I can,” Owen growled. Then he chuckled. “Why? Don’t you trust me?”

  “I don’t trust them,” the captain snapped. “You shouldn’t go in among them alone.”

  “Jack…”

  “I don’t care if one of them is dying. You wait for someone to come watch your back before you go in there!”

  “And what is this lot going to do to me?” Owen asked cockily as he got up and put the remains of a bandage back in his backpack. “There isn’t one of them that isn’t wounded, most of them twice, and they’re all bound.”

  “I don’t care!” Jack told him angrily. He could not bear the thought of Owen being outnumbered. _Who’s to say that one or two of them aren’t strong enough to free themselves, to overpower him and hold him hostage…_ Aloud he said, “You’ve already given them more care than they deserve. After the past twenty-four hours, it’s a risk I don’t want you taking. Give me your word, Owen!”

  Owen chuckled. “Why, Jack, you really do care,” he teased.

  Jack did not crack a smile. “Yeah, I do.”

  Those simple words winded Owen. He felt as if the captain had reached right into his chest and given his heart a squeeze. As the recent horrors filled his mind, his humour faded and he nodded. “I promise,” he said seriously. “I won’t go in among them without backup.”

  “Thank you,” Jack said and turned to leave for their search. “Gwen? Let’s go.”

  Nodding Gwen followed him outside.

 

xXx

 

  They did not need to go far to find Kieran. When they rounded the corner of the house he sat in the grass, leaning with his back against the wall and hugging his knees to his chest.

  “Kieran?” Gwen said. “Are you all right?”

  “No,” he whined, rocking forward and back. “No.”

  “What are you doing out here?” she gently asked, squatting down beside him and placing her hand on his shoulder.

  “I… was looking for you, but… he was in there…”

  “You saw me talking with their leader?”

  “Yeah,” he moaned, hugging his legs tighter and burrowing his head between his arms. Doing that he bent forward and Gwen soothingly rubbed circles on his back.

  “Why don’t we go in?” she suggested. “It’s getting cold here on the grass. It’s wet from the rain. You’ll get a cold.”

  “He’s in there!” Kieran sobbed fearfully. “Can’t go in there.”

  “We don’t have to go into the room where he is. We can stay where we interrogated him. He won’t be there. What do you say?”

  “I’m scared.”

  “You don’t have to be scared,” Gwen tried to reassure him in a low crooning voice. “We’ll protect you. You’re safe now.”

  “N-not s-s-safe,” he stuttered, shaking under her soothing hand.

  “Oh, yes. You are safe now,” Gwen insisted, wrapping her arm around his shoulders, carefully prodding him to get up. “See? They are subdued and bound. They won’t harm anyone anymore.”

  “You sure?” Kieran croaked meekly.

  “Yes, I’m sure. We’ll make sure of that. Am I right, Jack?” she added, glancing over her shoulder at him.

  The captain straightened up automatically. His posture made him look intimidating. Kieran gazed up at him and shuddered. Seeing the young man’s distress, he felt guilty and tried to make his expression more reassuring and less scary.

  “We’ve called the police, collected all the evidence they’ll need to put them in jail for the rest of their lives,” he explained, keeping his voice low and gentle, yet strong enough to be reassuring. “They will all grow old and die in prison. I’ll make sure of it.”

  _Of course, now that you’ve made that promise, you’ll have to follow through. Might have to call in a few favours to do that._ He thought about Ianto, the terror he had seen on the young man’s face, and shuddered when he realized how close he had come to losing his entire team. _It will be well worth it_ , he decided.

  “You’ll stay with me?” Kieran whispered.

  “Yes, I will,” Gwen promised. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

  She got up and took his right arm to help him up. The boy was stiff from sitting so cramped on the cold ground. Once he stood he slowly went along with her, staying close by her side, afraid that she would vanish on him. They passed Jack and he followed them to the room where they interrogated Sherman.

  “You go back to Owen,” Gwen told him as they settled down in two chairs. “I’ll stay with Kieran.”

  Jack did not object. Someone had to stay with Kieran and as Gwen was injured it was as well that Kieran was with her.

  “Call if you need me,” he said, pivoting to go under the doorframe.

  “Sure,” Gwen confirmed.

  Outside Jack stopped for a moment to deeply breathe in the night’s clear air. He was about to go in to help Owen when the sound of an engine made him turn towards the field path. Two headlights danced in the darkness and not much later their SUV stopped in the courtyard. Jack was relieved when he saw Toshiko climb down from the driver’s seat. She opened the back door and helped Ianto out.

  “Who told you to go and search for the bloody car?” Jack snapped, giving vent to his feelings.

  “You,” Ianto replied unperturbed, gently removing Toshiko’s hands from his body.

  _That’s been a looong time ago,_ Jack thought… and had to laugh inwardly. _Well, time’s relative. It feels like ages._

  “Come, Ianto,” Toshiko said. “Let’s go in.”

  Reluctantly he nodded and started for the room where they had brought the tied up cannibals.

  “Gwen’s over there,” Jack said and nodded at the other entrance. “With Kieran. If you want to go there…”

  Toshiko and Ianto exchanged a quick but meaningful glance and decided to go to Gwen.

  “You’ll be all right, Jack?” Toshiko asked before they entered.

  “Owen and I have them under control and the police will be here soon,” Jack reassured her. “So go and keep the others company.”

  “Sure,” Toshiko agreed and led Ianto to the house.

 

tbc…


	10. The calm after the storm

  Jack sat looking out the window watching for the police. Owen had insisted he had everything under control, and he really did, but sooner or later, the young man was going to need to have a break.

  _Or a breakdown,_ Jack thought grimly. _When he does I don’t want him to be on his own._

  At the moment, the captain felt utterly useless, and could only wish for something to do. Staring out the window gave him too much time to think. Too much time to think about what might have happened if one of his team had been on the other side of the gate when he crashed through it with the tractor, or if the cannibals had decided to bleed out Ianto and Toshiko before taking the others, or if…

  “Jack! Quit your woolgathering and get over here! I need you help!” Owen demanded in a tone that implied he had called his name more than once.

  “I thought you had everything under control,” Jack teased, though he did move quickly to put pressure on the bandage that Owen indicated.

  “I did,” the medic barked back. “Then this bloody fool decided to sit up all on his own. Looks like one of your shotgun pellets nicked the brachial artery when he put pressure on his hand to push himself up, he shifted it. Now he’s bleeding out. Just keep up the pressure while I find something to make a proper pressure bandage.” Turning in a slow circle and giving the rest of his patients the evil eye, he said, “And if any of you other bastards try something as stupid as this, I promise you, my conscience will not suffer from watching you die of your injuries.”

  Jack saw them wince at the idea of bleeding to death. The man beneath him shuddered and suppressed whimpers escaped his throat. He was genuinely horrified at the thought of being left to bleed out. Jack squeezed his wounded arm harder and hissed in his face, “Don’t worry.  You won’t become anyone’s dinner today.”

  The man moaned and turned his head away. 

  “What’s the matter?” Jack taunted. “Lost your appetite?”

  “Jack,” Owen said in a warning tone as he padded more gauze on top of what was already soaked through and wrapped an elastic bandage snugly around it to maintain the pressure. “That should hold you until the paramedics arrive,” he told his patient, “unless you try something stupid like moving again.”

  Jack glared at a woman nearby who had been watching him help Owen. Looking at the palm of his hand, smeared red from the saturated gauze he’d been holding, he held it out to her.

  “Want a taste?”

  She went positively green and turned her head away, retching. Jack crouched over her.

  “Lost your stomach for it, have you?” he asked her. “Good. I hope you spend the rest of your life feeling sick about what you’ve done.”

  “Jack, that’s enough,” Owen snapped. “You’re only making it worse!”

  Jack was repulsed. Rising to his feet he towered over the cannibals. His voice was laced with calm malice when he replied, “No, Owen, it doesn’t get worse than this.” Turning in a slow circle, his greatcoat gently swirling around him, he said, “All the things we deal with, and the real monsters are your own kind.” He felt his stomach churn and had to swallow hard.

  “Listen to me, all of you!” he barked. “Starting today, you all better learn to sleep with one eye open and grow eyes in the backs of your heads, because as far as I am concerned, you have all lost the right to be human. Give me one good reason, and I’ll come after you. You can’t run from me, you can’t hide, and you won’t be safe in prison. I can get you, anywhere.” Jack paused for effect, fixating each one of them with a cold glare that gave even Owen the creeps, before he added, “And I will.”

  Jack needed fresh air, desperately. Dragging Owen with him away from the villagers, he pushed him down on a chair and mumbled something that sounded like _stay here_ , as he patted the medic on the shoulder. Then he pivoted on his heels and rushed out of the room, out of the house. Only a good distance away from the place of horror he stopped, bending forward and clutching his knees.

  Gasping for breath he remained in that position for a while. Only now that he was breathing in the scent of grass, rain, and soil he realized that he still had the smell of the slaughter house in his nose. It stuck to his senses, haunting him.

  Slowly Jack straightened up.

  Gazing back over his shoulder he was taken back in time by his memories. They brought him back to the moment he crashed through the wooden gate into the house. The tractor had roared and vibrated underneath him, proving its power. Jack had the shotgun he had taken from the wimp ready and his Webley tucked safely into its holster. He was ready when the wood burst under the impact while he hoped that the villagers would not expect something like a tractor crashing into their kitchen. So he would be able to keep the element of surprise on his side.

  _I had no other choice. Time was slipping through my fingers. They were about to kill Ianto. A single second more or less could’ve decided life and death. So I could only hope that none of my team was anywhere near the gate. What could I have destroyed?_ Jack thought, chagrined. _If one of them would’ve been in the path of the tractor… Don’t think about that! There was no time to check! No time!_

  He felt sick, his stomach churning. It was as if the cheeseburger he had eaten for lunch had turned into a stone, lying heavily in his guts, pressing on his insides.

  _Hopping down from the tractor and shooting the bastards was the easy part. Dealing with the reality of their monstrosity isn’t._

  Once more Jack gasped for breath.

  Then his attention was piqued by a light, moving through the darkness in the distance. It slowly approached his position and a moment later Jack could hear a motor humming. Then the headlights danced toward him, stopping between him and the house. The engine died and two men in uniform alighted from the car.

  “Constables Barkley,” one of them introduced himself, adding with a nod to his partner, “and Whitmore. Did you call in the emergency?”

  “One of my team members did,” Jack replied, straightening up, steeling himself, and stepping forward to go and face the police officers. “Captain Jack Harkness.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We could secure the scene and subdue the suspects,” Jack explained. “We’re holding them in the house over there. You can arrest them now.”

  “Whoa! Wait a minute!” Whitmore blurted out. “What are you talking about? Who should we arrest?”

  “Constable Barkley,” Jack turned to him because he was the one who had addressed him first and seemed the more sensible of the two. “The people we’ve overpowered are responsible for the deaths of seventeen missing people, all of whom vanished in the same area… here. Your scientists will be able to find plenty of DNA and other forensic evidence in the house.”

  “Our scientist…” Whitmore mused, seeming almost amused by the idea that his rural police force would have more than one SOCO.

  “You called the forensics in, didn’t you?” Jack asked. He already felt his patience being challenged. “And where are the rest of your colleagues? You can’t deal with this arrest on your own.”

  “Begging your pardon, sir, but how, exactly, does a Yank captain come to have jurisdiction way out here in Welsh countryside?” Barkley asked, still cordial but sounding a bit suspicious now. “And what exactly are you a captain of? That doesn’t look like any American military uniform I have ever seen.”

  “Torchwood,” Jack spat.

  “What? What’s Torchwood?” Whitmore pressed

  “ _We_ are Torchwood. Now arrest the bastards!” This man was really trying his limit of tolerance.

  “For God’s sake, Colin. Let’s check it out,” Barkley told his partner. “C’mon.”

  They both went to the door Jack showed them to and entered the house.

  There they stopped dead.

  “Bloody hell!” Barkley exclaimed at the sight of the injured villagers. “When did we declare war on Brynblaidd?” Then he spotted the constable. “Huw! Are you all right?” he gasped and rushed to the side of the injured PC who sat with his back against the wall, clutching his bandaged right hand to his chest. His left thigh also was adorned with dressing material, the compress already stained red from his blood.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Whitmore demanded to know. “Evan! What did they do to you and the others? And where’s Gethin?”

  “What did _we_ do to _them_?” a young man burst out, shooting to his feet from where he sat near the door monitoring the room full of wounded villagers. “You mean what did those sick fuckers do to us, right?”

  “Owen…” Jack said, slightly shaking his head at the doctor.

  “Ah, for you it’s okay to rant, huh? The bastards nearly bled Ianto to death! These officers should know that!” Owen’s face reddened as he talked himself into a righteous rage. “Besides, I thought I called in exactly what they’ve done to those poor travellers!”

  “Are you accusing Mr. Sherman of abducting those people?” Constable Whitmore asked in disbelief.

  “Mister Sherman…” Owen gasped, trailing off to an incredulous laugh. “No, I _am_ accusing _mister_ Sherman and this whole fucking, insane village of murdering them, butchering them, and eating them! Bloody hell, they wanted to eat us! So will you arrest them now?!”

  “That’s a grave accusation,” Barkley said, carefully keeping his tone calm and professional. “Do you have proof?” The young man seemed quite convinced of what he was saying, and whatever compelled him and his colleagues to assault the villagers, he did not want to set him off again, at least not until he had some back up.

  “Oh… yeah, sure.”

  Owen gestured them to follow him and left the room to return to the kitchen and slaughterhouse in the neighbouring house. The constables unsuspectingly trailed behind. Only when they stepped through the gaping hole in the wall and past the tractor did they get the first hint of what awaited them as the stench of blood wafted their way.

  Waiting for them at the doorway Owen gestured them forward. When they complied and went past the plastic sheets their faces turned white. Only a few seconds later both emerged, running, darting out of the house and emptying their stomachs over on the grass.

  “Proof enough?” Owen spat as he left, too. “Can you arrest them _now_?

  Right now the two police constables were in no condition to arrest anyone. Owen saw it with satisfaction and Jack, who stood under the doorframe, with consternation.

  “Looks like they were impressed by the evidence,” Owen said as he squeezed past Jack to tend to a woman whose condition seemed to be deteriorating.

  “Yeah,” Jack agreed. “I’d say so.” He watched without emotion. They were on those constables’ turf. The villagers of Brynblaidd were their responsibility. If they would have done their job properly at least some of the abducted people would still be alive and last night would not have happened. His team would not have been in danger. No cannibals would have tried to bleed and eat them. They would probably have spent a day with paperwork at the Hub and would have gone home early, bored to death by the inactive Rift.

  _But no, I had to choose to come here and mess with what clearly wasn’t our business._ Another couple of lights caught his attention as they danced over the hills, approaching the village. _Hope there’s an ambulance among them. Owen needs a break, desperately._

  Impatiently Jack awaited their arrival. In the meantime the constables, considerably paler than before, returned to the house. Making a single step forward Jack made room for Barkley in the doorway and the constable went inside. Jack felt relieved when a second police car was not the only one stopping in front of the house, but also two ambulances.

  “Captain Jack Harkness,” Jack greeted the men and women, alighting from the cars. “Torchwood. The suspects are in there,” he nodded to the entrance behind him. Then he turned to the crew of the second ambulance. “If you could first check on my field operatives…”

  “Sure,” the woman taking the lead said. “Where are they?”

  “Here,” Jack replied and showed her the way.

  “Hey!” Constable Whitmore shouted, trying to intercept the medic, “Most of the people in here are in worse shape than his field operatives. You should check on them first.”

  It was all he could do not to flinch when Jack stepped between him and the paramedic. His eyes were dark with rage and the constable realized that it would be better not to provoke him.

  “We’re the good guys,” Jack snarled. “Your buddies in the next room were killing and eating people, and you didn’t have a clue.” His look seemed to darken even more when he growled menacingly, “They can wait, and you can just deal with it. Unless you want to join them?”

  For a moment the medic had stopped to watch the dispute before she entered the building to take care of the captain’s team.

 

xXx

 

  Down the hill at the Tap House where Gwen had found the second body and where they had tried to barricade themselves from the unknown enemies a shadow slid through the darkness. It moved fast, ducking under branches and avoiding the tires out on the yard.

  The man approaching the inn knew that the tractor had been parked right across from the front door. Now it stood in the village hall. The image made the man’s blood boil.

  _Those meddlers are to blame,_ he thought. _If they wouldn’t have come nothing would’ve happened. Everything would be all right now. We’d have our harvest and Mam and Tad wouldn’t be hurt. Oh, that bastard with the coat. He shot them. If I only would’ve had a gun…_

  He snuck into the pub.

  The light did not work, but he knew the place. He also knew where he would find a weapon. So he went down into the cellar. A pitiful moan made him prick his ears. He found a flashlight and shone around the room. There was a figure lying on the floor.

  “Martin?” he gasped.

  “Gethin?”

  “Yeah. Bloody hell! What happened to you?”

  “Got shot!” Martin whined. “Get those ropes off me!”

  “Yeah, of course!”

  Fingers shaking with rage Gethin fumbled the knots open and released his cousin.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “Yeah.”

  But first Gethin collected what weaponry he could find. Then he helped Martin up the stairs and out of the house. Together they vanished in the darkness.

 

xXx

 

  Ianto was content sitting in a chair in the corner and being left alone. It was not an easy task to concentrate on what was going on around him and so he ceased to try. Whenever he glanced at his colleagues he saw them in duplicate as his eyes were too tired to focus. He was hurting all over his body, still felt a little sick, and his head was throbbing.

  The drive back to the village had been hell. Even though Toshiko tried to avoid potholes, she had apologized at least six or seven times, it was the rough ride that had to be expected from a field path. So Ianto had been given a good shaking, feeling every bump vibrate through his whole body, the pain gathering in his chest and head. It made him feel dizzy and he was grateful when Toshiko stopped in front of the house. Then he saw Jack who did not look amused and consequently snapped at them for running off. Dimly Ianto remembered that they went to the house next and then he found himself in this chair.

  Tiredly he looked up. Gwen fussing over a boy, murmuring soothing nonsense to him, had turned into a constant drone. Toshiko sat beside them, obviously lost in thought. As Ianto did not feel like talking he lowered his gaze again and sank deeper into a trancelike state that allowed him to blank out the permanent pain.

  His mind was kind of numb. Memories of the previous day ghosted through his head in a random order, a blur of pictures that threatened to turn his sanity upside down. Ianto desperately tried to hold on to scenes from the campsite, the walk through the hills, or the village before they discovered the carnage, but it did not help.

  The other images mercilessly pushed back into his consciousness.

  In his imagination he was back in the cellar, right before he was thrown into their first prison. The hands on his body seared his flesh.

  He tried to free himself and the hands vanished.

  He ran.

  Ran.

  Ran.

  Hit a wall.

  Ran.

  Smashed into something.

  Crashed.

  Hands.

  He was dragged away and the steel door fell into its lock behind him. As soon as he tried to move he groaned.

  “Ianto?”

  Once more hands closed around his arms. He was bound, handcuffs holding his arms behind his back. Another hand threaded into his hair, forcing him to look at a terrified face. A boy, his face a mask of terror. He tried to breathe and could not. Lips on his cheek, a tender kiss, appreciative, mocking him. The steel cut in his wrists. A boot connected with his ribs.

  “Aaaaahhh!”

  “Ianto!”

  His eyes flicked open, growing wide, staring sightlessly ahead. Ianto still was trapped in his memories when Toshiko took him by the shoulders.

  “Ianto,” she said gently. “Hey, come back to me. Shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe now.”

  “T-t-tosh?”

  “I’m here, Ianto,” she replied soothingly. “I’m all right and so are you. See, Gwen and Kieran are here, too. We all are okay.”

  His gaze darted through the room searchingly.

  “Owen’s with Jack, guarding the captives,” Gwen explained.

  Ianto thought his head would explode… or implode, there would not be much difference, except for the size of the mess. His suffering would be over. Gwen’s voice bore into his ears like a drill. Why did she have to become louder when she was irritated? Or worried? Was she worried? Why would she be? Tosh.

  He tried to fixate their computer expert, but before he could do so his gaze went past her and locked on a figure at the table. Ianto knew he had seen the boy before, but who was he? _Must be the one Tosh mentioned before,_ he mused.

  “W-who are you?” he asked, flinching at how much it sounded like a croak.

  “I’m Kieran.”

  “Kieran…” Suddenly Ianto’s mind rebooted and jumped back into work mode. “Kieran Dibriod?”

  “Yeah,” the boy confirmed.

  Ianto saw Gwen’s eyes grow wide with surprise.

  “He was on the list,” he told her matter of factly. “Kieran Dibriod, Kendall and Trystan Candafad. Kendall was reported missing two days ago because his parents did not know anything about any camping trip the three boys had planned.” As he spoke his voice dropped to a toneless ramble. “Police added the other names to the list when they could not find them at one of their home addresses. They are seventeen, fifteen, and eighteen years old.”

  “Ianto!” Toshiko tried to interrupt him. “Ianto.”

  But Ianto already faded off. His gaze went in the far distance, back to his memories of the first moment he saw Kieran, back to the slaughterhouse, to the moment when Evan pulled the dirty sack off the boy’s head.

  The moment when the woman held his hair, blowing a kiss on his cheek.

  It made his stomach lurch. Her appreciation was harder to take than the man’s, Evan’s, lust to taste them. In his mind’s eye he saw him lick his lips as he told Toshiko that meat would have to be tenderized…

  “Ianto?” Toshiko’s worried voice reached him like through thick fog. “Ianto. C’mon, love, focus on me. Ianto.”

  He heard her, but it was hard to grasp her words and even harder to follow her suggestion. What did she want from him? He was so tired.

  Suddenly someone else appeared beside the Japanese computer expert. Another woman. Her dark hair was pulled back in a pony tail. She reached out for him…

  “No!” he shouted, flinching back. “No!”

  “It’s okay,” Toshiko tried to reassure him, gently rubbing his forearm, showing him that she was there for him. “She’s a paramedic. Shhh.”

  But Ianto shook his head… only to regret it a moment later. His bloody head hurt.

  “I’m Colleen Quinn,” the woman in front of him said calmly. “What’s your name?”

  Ianto only looked at her in confusion. Then his brows furrowed. He did not want her to be here.

  “Ianto,” Toshiko finally said in his stead.

  “Ianto. Okay… Ianto, please look at me.”

  “Tosh?” he moaned, searching her gaze. She took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

  “It’s okay. She’s a medic. She won’t hurt you.”

  “Your friend is right, Ianto,” Colleen agreed. “I just want to check on you, make sure that you’re all right. Okay?”

  Reluctantly he looked at her.

  “That’s fine. Okay. I’m gonna check on your vitals, okay?”

  After a moment’s hesitation Ianto agreed. He felt her open his shirt cuff and shove the sleeve up to apply the cuff of her sphygmomanometer. Surprisingly it hurt when the cuff blew up and he flinched back from the medic.

  “Shhh, it’s okay.” The pressure decreased again. “It’s already done. No need to be scared.” She turned to Toshiko. “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “We were held hostage,” she said. “They hurt him.”

  “I see,” she murmured. “That’s why he’s scared of me. Okay…”

  Quickly she made the other assessing examinations and Ianto bit his lower lip, enduring it because Toshiko looked at him so pleadingly.

  “He might have a concussion,” Colleen finally stated. “You should take him to a hospital.”

  “We have a doctor on the team,” Ianto threw in. “He’ll take care of us.”

  “He was the one who bandaged you up, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he probably told you that you should go to a hospital?”

  For a moment Ianto hesitated. “Yeah,” he had to agree. “But he can do the check, too, when we’re back home.”

  “As long as you’ll be examined and treated properly I see no problem,” the medic said. “He’ll do that, right?”

  “Yes, he will,” Toshiko confirmed. “He’s pretty thorough.”

  “Okay. Then let’s look at the rest of you.”

  She turned to Gwen next and Ianto was glad to be rid of her. All he wanted was to be left alone. He leaned back in his chair and enjoying Toshiko’s caresses of his forearm he drifted off to a light sleep.

 

tbc…


	11. Statements

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but there was so much going on... I hope you're still with me. Enjoy!

  Owen took a deep breath and let the medic take over. He did not know how he found his way out of the house, but he was relieved beyond belief when he took the first breath of fresh mountain air. The smell of grass that he had loathed at the beginning of their trip was wonderful compared to the stench of the slaughterhouse. Even though he had not been long in there the disgusting odour clung to his clothes.

  _I want a pint and a shower,_ he thought, brushing over his jacket and trousers without being able to get rid of the dirt and the blood. _Or a beer shower? Better to smell like a pub than like a butcher shop. Yeah, that would be cool. Knock drinking and washing off at the same time._

  The police cars and ambulances in front of the house were a sign of civilization and safety and a welcome sight. Still Owen strolled along the house and around the corner to find some privacy. Right now he did not want to talk with anybody. He had to get order into his own thoughts first.

  _Bloody hell, I thought he had killed Tosh. She was so pale and not breathing when I first pushed the bastard off her. Oh, I should’ve shot the fucker! Would’ve spared us some trouble._

  Owen was fuming.

  The fear he had felt back then on the clearing turned into rage. In his mind’s eye he saw the man smirk up at him and his weapon, an evil smirk that lacked any humour. Owen could not describe the horror he felt when the constable pulled his weapon on him. _Gwen reacted fast, but she didn’t know what to do. She just couldn’t shoot. It was a stalemate, a fifty-fifty chance. If Gwen had shot I might be dead..._

  _I really thought Tosh was dead. For a moment there she could’ve been. Then Gwen gave her a hug and Tosh started rambling about the villagers cannibalizing the bodies._

  He gave a strangled laugh.

  _I didn’t even realize which bodies she meant. The truth only sank in when we were pushed into the slaughter house. They butchered the missing travellers._

  Suddenly Owen felt sick. His stomach rolled and he staggered away from the house, supporting himself against the wall as he emptied the nonexistent contents of his stomach into the grass. His dry retching hurt. Owen choked it down and leaned with his back against the wall.

  _They nearly killed the teaboy,_ Owen thought. _I saw Tosh look around for him even before she asked about him. When that man pulled him up… the meat cleaver against his neck…_

  His stomach protested again, threatening to turn over.

  _Don’t,_ Owen ordered himself.

_Too late._

  A second later his imagination shoved the meat cleaver against his own neck and he coughed violently.

  “Owen, you jerk. It’s just the cheeseburger coming back to haunt you,” he scolded himself. “That’s all. You’re not becoming queasy.”

  Thankfully he was distracted by yet another car pulling up in the front garden. Peeking around the corner he saw a man in a suit get out of the vehicle and scan the area. Then he walked to the house and vanished inside.

  _Who could he be?_ Owen mused. _Another officer? CID?_

  Well, he was pretty sure that he would find out soon, but for now he wanted to be left alone. So he leaned back and looked up at the stars, escaping to memories of alien hunts.

 

xXx

 

  _Staying with Ianto was a good decision,_ Toshiko thought. Slowly the quivering beneath her hand ceased. Still she kept on caressing her colleague’s forearm. Watching him unobtrusively she could see how the tension in his jaw lessened and his forehead smoothed. It looked like he fell asleep and that made her aware of how tired she was herself.

  Toshiko glanced over to the table where the medic renewed the dressing over Gwen’s gunshot wound. The former police officer steadfastly insisted on being fine and refused to go to the ambulance. Finally the medic turned to Kieran who on the other hand was glad to have someone taking care of him.

  Sighing Toshiko got up from where she squatted beside Ianto, never breaking the contact. She just needed to stretch her legs and find a better position. The flesh under her hand was warm and the contact reassuring, for him but also for her.

  _We almost lost him._ Toshiko shuddered, remembering the moments in the slaughterhouse. Once the first terror hit home and ebbed away she thought frantically about how to escape.

  Only there was no escape.

  She saw Ianto attack the couple and how he was knocked down, effectively winded by a blow to his solar plexus. Toshiko’s horror intensified when she saw the handcuffs close around his wrists. It was that second when she was about to use the diversion and dart past the woman, but she thrust her rifle in her face. Before she knew what happened the man kicked into her legs and brought her down to her knees. Pulling her arms roughly behind her back he wrapped rope around her wrists.

  That was when she was ready to give up…

  …only to hear Ianto whisper to her to get ready to run.

  _We thoroughly underestimated him,_ she reflected as she settled back down beside him. _If hiding his Cybergirlfriend in our basement for almost a year wasn’t a clue of what he could achieve then this mission was._

  Reluctant admiration was written on her features when she looked up at Ianto now.

  _Who would’ve thought that he’d try to fight them? I have to admit that I didn’t. But despite his obvious fear he was ready to defend himself._ She took a deep breath. _No, that’s not entirely correct. He was even ready to sacrifice himself for me when he attacked the cannibal._

  Toshiko choked on that thought.

  Before she could further delve into that matter her attention was drawn by two men entering the room, Jack and a bloke in a suit. Owen came trailing behind.

  “This is Detective Inspector Morrison,” Jack told them. “He’s here to take our statements about what happened. I’ve told him we’re willing to cooperate so these monsters can go to jail where they belong, but he does understand that it has been a very long day for us, so he’s going to be as brief as possible.”

  As he spoke, Jack had been giving his team reassuring looks. Seeing Ianto blink tiredly he ended with a comforting squeeze to the younger man’s shoulder. “Owen, Gwen, since you two found the first body, maybe one of you should start.”

  “Gwen had that honour,” Owen remarked.

  “Actually, before we get to that, I do rather need to know what you lot were doing out here in the first place,” Morrison said.

  “We’re Torchwood,” Jack responded before anyone else had the chance to speak.

  “Torchwood? What’s that?” Morrison asked with an arched brow

  “That is what you are going to go back to your station and ask your superior, and he will ask his superior, who will ask his superior, and so on, until it gets back to a very high-level government office. Then the message will come back down through the chain of command to tell you not to ask that question again,” Jack responded cheerfully.

  Morrison frowned. “Special OPs then? All right.”

  Jack grinned and nodded, liking the guy for accepting his answer without protest, so he threw him a bone. “We thought the disappearances had something to do with a case we should be working. Turns out it was even worse than most of the stuff we deal with.”

  Morrison stood a little straighter then, clearly registering the subtle compliment.

  “Okay,” the detective inspector said. “Then let us begin, Miss…”

  “Cooper,” Gwen said, getting up from her chair and moving to another corner of the room away from her colleagues where she could speak to him in relative privacy without having to leave the comfort of their support altogether. Morrison followed her example.

  “Good, Miss Cooper… By the way, do you have ranks in your organisation?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” she replied. “You can call me Gwen.”

  “All right, Gwen. Please tell me what led to your discovery.”

  “We had just set up camp and I went to get firewood together with Owen,” she began her tale. “We were absorbed in our talk when I noticed a figure among the trees and alerted Owen to it. We attempted to apprehend the person watching us but lost track of him in the forest. Instead we found a sodden blanket. When we lifted it with a branch we found a human carcass.”

  “If you say a carcass…” Morrison interrupted her.

  “Remains,” Gwen affirmed. “Skull, bones… with just a little tissue sticking to them. That was all there was left.”

  “I see. What did you do next?”

  “We informed the rest of the team and cordoned off the scene. Owen just began with his preliminary examination of the body when we heard our car and returned to the camp just to see the vehicle vanish between the hills. We traced its GPS signal and followed it to the village. The settlement appeared to be vacated when we arrived and first checked on the inn. That is Owen, Jack, and I were inspecting the pub while Toshiko and Ianto went to find the SUV.” She paused a moment to collect her thoughts and continued, “Jack and I went upstairs where we separated. I entered the kitchen and, around a corner, found a second body, this time complete with only a few parts missing.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, how did they manage to steal your vehicle?”

  “Someone left the keys in it,” she replied without hesitation.

  _Why doesn’t she name the guilty party?_ Morrison wondered. _Was she the one? Or is she protecting, forgiving, or just refusing to blame the individual responsible for getting them into such a mess? Or maybe she just doesn’t know._

  “All right. Please continue,” he said, suspecting that his questions would eventually be answered by one of the others.

  Morrison listened to her tale with growing trepidation, but still could not help noticing the way she spoke. She knew their terms, the terms a police officer would use in a report. He also did not need to push her along with questions. Once she found her stride she only stopped talking after she told him about interrogating Evan Sherman.

  So the detective inspector made some notes before he asked, “Gwen, may I ask what you did before you joined your task force?”

  “I walked the beat in Cardiff,” she replied.

  _That explains a lot,_ Morrison thought. Silently he was impressed by how composed she was given the horror she had experienced, especially as she was shot.

  “Thank you, Gwen. I think that’s all I need to know for now.”

  “No problem,” she said and got up, making an offering gesture to Owen. Frowning deeply the doctor went to take his seat across the detective inspector.

  “Okay, Mr. Harper…”

  “Dr. Harper, actually,” the medic informed him, offering him one of his patented wry smirks.

  “My apologies, Dr. Harper. Please describe your version of the events.”

  “Well, our boss brought us out here to the ruddy countryside to investigate a case and we had just managed to set up the bloody tents when Gwen and I decided to go and collect some firewood.” He snorted with wry disgust. “That was when we found the carcass. While we were examining the body, we discovered that I… I had left the sodding keys in the car!”

  It was plain from the young man’s tone and expression how much guilt he felt about that error. It would take him some time to accept that he was not responsible for the ordeal they had all been through, but he did not seem the type to graciously accept comforting platitudes from a stranger. So Morrison just remained quiet and listened attentively.

  Of course Owen’s statement was partially the same as Gwen’s but he definitely noticed the differences when the doctor talked about the body they found in the kitchen above the pub.

  “An initial examination revealed that the ribs had been removed from the upper right chest to allow access to the organs of the chest cavity, which had been removed along with the Pectoralis major and minor and rectus abdominus...”

  “Actually…” Morrison interrupted, “I don’t need it _that_ detailed.”

  “Oh. Sure. Okay,” Owen agreed. “I assume that you’ll get the details from your medical examiner. So, I was examining the corpse when I heard a shot and shouts. I grabbed my bag and ran out of the house to see what had happened. Gwen was injured and Jack brought her inside where I treated her wound. The ruddy bastard simply shot her.”

  Kieran craned his neck to look at the doctor when he heard that. Then he ducked lower in his chair. “I was scared,” he whined.

  Gwen tried to comfort him, but she could not pull him out of his guilt trip. Of course he knew that he should not have shot, but in his terror he only saw a strange woman with a gun in her hand that forcefully pulled open the door he had locked to keep his assailants out of the house. So he shot.

  Toshiko watched the former police officer deal with the kid. During her testimony she had listened attentively to the parts about the pub and the bodies they found. As she herself had taken another path she did not know about the other victims. This was the first opportunity for her to get to know what the others had encountered.

  She looked up at Ianto, but there was nothing in his features that would indicate that he was listening, too. For all she could tell he dozed off again. So she let her gaze wander until it came to rest on Jack who now leaned with his back against the wall, watching his team members in turns. When their eyes met the corners of his mouth quirked to a small smile.

  Toshiko shivered.

  _There’s something in his eyes,_ she thought. _I don’t think that I’ve ever seen him looking like that at one of us, at least not when we could probably notice it. It’s so… tender, almost loving._

  When she saw his gaze shift over to Ianto Toshiko noticed the tiniest change in Jack’s features. There was definitely more than concern and protectiveness. It was there for barely a second before it vanished again.

  _I know what I saw, though. Now what’s going on inside him? If he just wouldn’t shut us out all the time._

  Out of the corner of her eye she noticed movement and when she turned her head she saw Owen leave the place opposite Detective Inspector Morrison. Sensing that now was the best moment to give her statement she took a deep breath and got up from the floor. She felt Ianto stir and offered him a reassuring smile.

  “I won’t be far away,” she murmured and lightly squeezed his forearm. What she saw mirrored in his eyes was clearly reluctance to let her go, though she could not tell if he did not want her to go because he did not want to be alone or because he feared something would happen to her. In the end she left him and went to the investigator, offering him her full name as she sat down across from him and he wrote it down.

  “Okay, Miss Sato,” he began. “You also were present when Dr. Harper examined the body you found in the woods?”

  “Yes. Then we heard our car wreck our camp and followed its signal to the village. Jack asked Ianto and me to go and find the SUV so they went over to the pub while we walked up the hill to another house in the distance, hoping to find the vehicle there. All we found was a vacated house. We went around it to check on the back and then everything went dark. When I came to we were locked up in a cellar. Searching a way out we found a fridge with… body parts inside. That’s how we realized that we were food for whoever or whatever had attacked us.”

  “Whatever?”

  “As we were still lacking information it could also be a whatever,” she replied and offered him a crooked grin. “Do you know Welsh legends?”

  “I read them to my kids.”

  “I’m sure you know that many legends originated from real events the people could not explain at that point in time?”

  “I heard about that, sure.”

  “Anyway. Someone came to open the steel door and we were confronted with a woman. She had a rifle, claimed to be a nurse and first asked questions before she stated that she couldn’t help us. Instead she threatened us with the rifle and made us come with her. She led us to the house here.”

  Morrison listened attentively. Despite recording the statements on his laptop he took notes on a pad, too. Additional information for his report. Toshiko for example gave him a plethora of information and he wanted to make sure that he would transfer the details correctly to his report later. Finally she finished her statement with her description of how Jack had saved them by crashing through the gate with the old tractor and shooting the cannibals. Morrison thanked her and looked expectantly at Ianto.

  The young Welshman did not notice the prompting gaze. He had closed his eyes again and Toshiko decided to gently nudge his upper arm.

  “Ianto?”

  “Yeah, I know,” he grumbled. Then he opened his eyes and pushed himself up from his chair. He was somewhat stiff from sitting for so long in the same position as well as from the pain that ran through his body in waves. “Ianto Jones,” he said as he took his place where Toshiko sat only a moment ago.

  At once Morrison noticed that something was different about this young man apart from being apparently roughed up. Bruises darkened on his forehead and he looked rather battered. Now the detective inspector had to find out what else was different, something that pricked his curiosity.

  “I take it you’re also a Torchwood field operative?” the detective inspector asked.

  “I’m the support officer.”

  “I see,” Morrison said, scribbling it down and barely hiding his surprise. “So you accompanied the team on this mission why?”

  _That’s what I was wondering, too,_ Ianto thought. _I still am._

  “I’m responsible for whatever accrues,” he explained. “From A as in administration to Z as in zookeeper.”

  “Zookeeper?” Morrison asked, confused.

  Unnoticed by the others and least of all Ianto, Jack pricked his ears and focused entirely on the two men on the other side of the room, waiting anxiously for what Ianto would answer.

  Ianto, though, left the question unanswered at first, a mysterious smile playing around his lips before he said,  “You’d be surprised what the others can get up to.”

  “I see,” Morrison mused, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. As he could also watch the captain from his position he noticed how Harkness bit in his fist not to laugh out loud at that comment. Realizing that they should not drift off from the subject he decided to go ahead with the interview. “According to what your colleagues told me you played a very active role in your investigation here.”

  “Out of necessity.”

  Morrison nodded and wrote something on his pad. “What can you tell me about the first body you found when Miss Cooper and Dr. Harper went to collect firewood?”

  “A carcass.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Just… a carcass,” Ianto shrugged.

  “What did you do while Dr. Harper examined the remains?”

  “Cordoned off the scene.”

  “Anything else?”

  Ianto shook his head and regretted it at once. For just a second his vision blurred.

  “Then you heard the car’s engine?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did you do then?” Morrison demanded to know and had a good idea of what the young man would answer.

  “We ran.”

  _Don’t talk too much,_ Morrison thought. Slowly he guided him through the interview, and as he listened to the tersely recited report about the young man’s capture, he noticed how his voice wavered slightly.

  “I was pushed from behind, fell, and got knocked out. I came to. Someone dragged me forward. I tried to escape, ran into a wall. I fell. They threw me into the cellar.”

  Morrison pricked his ears. “Did you see them then?”

  “No.”

  “What happened next?”

  From there his statement was not much different from Toshiko’s…

  …until he reached the moment when he helped her to escape.

  “I head butted the man. Tosh ran. I tried to follow. Both he and the woman held me back and he hit me. I went down on my knees. He kicked my stomach. He left and she came and hit me with the rifle butt…” Ianto’s voice trailed off. It was not only his general weariness of the situation, of the constant fight to stay alert, and the effort to keep the pain at bay. It was also the memory of what had followed his colleague’s escape. He knew that he should tell the detective inspector what the men had done to him, but for some reason he hesitated.

  _It would be easier to say that I was unconscious until the others were brought in. Until that animal tried to cut my throat._

  He choked.

  “Mr. Jones?” Morrison asked. “Are you all right?”

  Out of bleary eyes Ianto looked at him. _Isn’t it obvious that I’m **not** all right?_

  “I… think I was awake when Evan returned with my team mates,” he said. “He pulled the sack off my head. A… m-m… meat cleaver… against my neck.”

  Now Ianto looked as if he was about to be sick.

  “I think that’s enough,” an adamant voice interrupted and a calming hand came to rest on Ianto’s left shoulder.

  “I-it’s okay… Jack,” Ianto mumbled. His vision was foggy, but he still knew that he had to finish this. “He… let go of me then. He went to fight. The tractor broke through the gate.”

  Morrison nodded.

  “I was bound,” Ianto said tonelessly. “Nobody came. I… couldn’t move…”

  Distress crept into his voice. Ianto felt Jack’s hands squeeze his shoulders. He tried to wind out of the grip, but as soon as he moved pain stabbed his chest, so he stiffened up and let it happen.

  “That’s enough,” Jack repeated brusquely.

  “We’re finished anyway,” Morrison told him, silently stunned by his protectiveness. “It’s your turn, Captain Harkness.”

  “Owen!” Jack shouted and waved the doctor over. “Take care of Ianto.”

  “Sure,” Owen confirmed as he hurried to their boss. “Come, Ianto. Let’s find you a calmer place.”

  Without any sign of resistance Ianto followed Owen to where he sat before. Toshiko welcomed him with a quick hug and he sank down on the chair again. Quite surprised Ianto noticed that now Gwen started to fuss over him and he wrinkled his nose.

  “A fine team you have, Captain Harkness,” Morrison said, accompanying his words with a small smile.

  Over his shoulder Jack glanced at the group behind them. _I hope one day they will be a team._ “Yeah, I know,” he murmured. “They are good at what they do.” Tearing his gaze off team Torchwood he turned back to Morrison. “Let’s wrap this up.”

  “Sure, Captain. You give your statement and you’ll be free to go.”

  “Sounds like a deal,” Jack smirked and started to talk.

 

tbc…


	12. Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, the final chapter. Big thanks to forgetmenotjimmy for following the story actively. I hope everyone else liked it as well. Enjoy!

  While Jack talked to Detective Inspector Morrison the first rays of sunlight crept over the mountains. They found their way through the dusty windows, throwing long shadows on the floor.

  Ianto could not stand it inside anymore. As soon as he saw the sun rise he pushed himself up from the chair and fought his way to the door. It was still rather cold outside, but Ianto welcomed the fresh air. Dew glistened on the grass, enchanting the mountain range. The countryside looked peaceful. Birds were singing and a breeze rustled in the trees.

  A paramedic brushing his side as he went to his ambulance brought Ianto back to reality. The area in front of the house was still filled with different vehicles. One of the ambulances just left and vanished between the hills. A police constable guided one of the patched up cannibals out to a patrol car. Other officers walked across the front yard and came dangerously close to Ianto.

  Anxiously he avoided meeting them. Suddenly the open space in front of him seemed to be way too small. He had to get away from there. So he quickly made his way across the yard to where their SUV stood. As he did not feel like being confined to the small space inside he opened the back door and sat down in the open boot.

  It did not take long until first Jack and then Owen emerged from the house. Owen looked for something on the passenger’s side of the SUV before he met Jack in front of the car.

  Ianto wondered what they were waiting for. _Women. Gwen and Tosh are not here yet. What’s keeping them?_

  What Jack and Owen were talking about he could not hear and he did not care anyway. All he wanted was to leave the horrific place. He would never look at the countryside with the same eyes again… no longer beautiful, peaceful, and tranquil… now barren, desolate, and menacing.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Evan Sherman being led to a waiting police car. The officers pushed him inside and then took their seats up front. Then the vehicle left the yard. Ianto followed it with his eyes and wished never to see that poor excuse for a human being ever again.

  Gwen came out of the house now. Holding her injured side she walked straight toward Jack and Owen and looked over her shoulder as two more officers led Huw, Brynblaidd’s constable, from an ambulance to their car to take him to prison. When she reached her boss and the doctor she only glanced at them before she passed between them, marching a small distance over the grass where she stopped under a tree. She was shaking and sank to the ground in a crumbled heap.

  “Gwen!” Owen cried out when he saw her break down, assuming that her injury was the cause, and hurried over to her. Jack followed right behind him.

  “Gwen? Are you all right?” Owen wanted to know as he squatted beside her in the dew wet grass.

  “What?” she mumbled, looking up at him out of teary eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Owen prodded, feeling her forehead for increased temperature. “How’s the pain?” He reached for her shirt to push it up and see if she was bleeding again.

  “Owen,” she groaned, trying to push his hands aside. “It’s not… I just…” She was fishing for words. “How could he?” she then erupted. “He’s a police officer! How could he help them? Relative or not! He knew! And he did nothing! Nothing!”

  Her voice breaking with anguish she slumped to a boneless mound of flesh. Owen wrapped his arms around her, holding her as she wept.

  Jack stood beside them and felt curiously superfluous. As he did not know what to do with himself he turned to go back to the car. Approaching it he saw Ianto’s figure leaning in the open boot, hands on the knees of his spread legs, somehow looking as if he could barely support himself. So Jack decided to go to him. Without asking his support officer’s permission he sat down on the edge beside him. Neither man said a single word for a long while until the silence became unbearable.

  “Come on, get it over with,” Ianto finally broke their silence.

  “Get what over with?” Jack asked back, honestly surprised.

  “With whatever you wanted to reprimand me for.”

  “Wha…”

  Jack’s mouth opened, but nothing more came out. Incredulously he studied Ianto’s profile in the warm glow of early morning sun. He saw nothing like warmth in his features, though. It looked as if he was frozen inside, his skin pale and, when Jack reached out to touch his cheek, clammy and icy cold.

  Ianto did not flinch away from his touch, too tired and too much in pain to waste his energy on avoiding Jack’s advances. And advances he thought it was when Jack’s fingers touched his cheek. _Can’t you reign in your carnal nature for once?_ Ianto thought miserably. _I can’t deal with you in addition to everything else right now. Just leave me alone!_

  But he said nothing.

  “Ianto?” Jack said and the single word was laden with anxiety and insecurity. He could sense the younger man’s repulse as well as if he had voiced it and quickly withdrew his hand. “I’m sorry!” he gasped, the words hitching in his throat. “I didn’t…”

  It did not happen often, but the captain was at a loss of what to say. He knew what he wanted to tell Ianto when he came over, but now he was undecided. Then, in the steadfast belief that it could not be wrong, he told him anyway.

  “I wanted to let you know that you did well,” he said. “You mastered your acid test brilliantly.” Unable to keep himself from physical contact he gently put his hand on Ianto’s shoulder, felt the young man shiver and realized that that probably was not enough yet. He asked his heart for advice and came up with a fairly simple feeling. “I’m proud of you.”

  Ianto’s head whipped around and from the agonized expression that flitted across his face Jack deduced that it hurt him.

  “Don’t make fun of me,” Ianto hissed, his eyes spreading fire. “Especially not now.”

  “I didn’t…”

  Jack was stunned… and hurt. What he saw burn in Ianto’s bright blue eyes was a strange mixture of pain, anger, fear, disgust, and something that Jack could only describe as self-loathing. _He seems to be on a full blown guilt trip. Just **why** , for god’s sake?_

  “Ianto,” he said, taking his hand away again because he sensed that he was not welcome. “What can I do to make you believe?” Jack looked at the younger man with what he hoped was a combination of compassion and desperation. He did not want to make him feel pitied, but that was exactly what he feared Ianto would take it for.

  “Please, Ianto. I was scared. I thought I had lost you.” Helplessly he wrung his hands, insecure about where to put them, especially as he was mere centimetres away from the younger man he desperately wanted to touch. “All I wanted was to reassure myself that you’re here, that you’re okay. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Carefully he reached out for him again and when he sensed no resistance he put his arm around Ianto’s shoulders.

  “I really _am_ proud of you,” Jack said. “You saved Toshiko’s life. I’d go so far as to say that you saved all our lives. You bought us time, the time I needed to get to you and take them out.”

  Ianto looked at him out of tear-flooded eyes, his lips trembling, unable to say anything.

  “You’re safe now,” Jack murmured and gently pulled him to his chest. “It’s all right. You’re all safe now.”

  He saw Toshiko approach and smiled encouragingly. So she stepped up to Jack and Ianto and the captain included her in the hug.

  “Jack?” Toshiko said softly. “Can we go now?”

  “Sure we can,” Jack agreed. “Ianto? Come. Get into the car. We’re driving home.”

  Surprisingly reluctantly Ianto separated from Jack and Toshiko, but still he stood up as soon as Jack asked him to, and went around the car. He wanted to get in on the back, but Jack opened the passenger door for him. So Ianto got in there.

  “Owen! Gwen!” Jack shouted. “We’re going!”

  A moment later the other two team members climbed into the back seat with Toshiko, Jack got in behind the wheel, and off they went.

 

xXx

 

  Detective Inspector Morrison followed the black SUV with his eyes until it vanished out of sight between the hills. From the path leading to the Tap House a group of officers came back to the row of houses. One of them approached the CID officer.

  “Where’re the captain and his team?” Constable Whitmore asked.

  “We completed the interviews,” Morrison told him. “They’ve left a few minutes ago.”

  “You know if one has a mobile phone?”

  Morrison frowned. “Why?”

  “The captain said that another captive was at the pub, but when we searched it no one was there.”

  “So what?”

  “Some ropes on the floor, though… and blood.”

  Thoughtfully Morrison rubbed his chin.

  “Gethin Sherman isn’t here either,” Whitmore stated.

  “Gethin Sherman?”

  “He’s the son of Helen and Evan Sherman. He’s missing.”

  “Well, then we should put out an APB on Gethin Sherman and Martin…”

  “Llewelyn.”

  Morrison nodded. “Okay, Constable. Take care of it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Whitmore confirmed and went to carry out the order. 

 

xXx

 

  Inwardly Ianto rolled his eyes when Jack pulled the SUV off the road and onto a path down to the clearing where they had set up camp.

  “Oh, no! Jack! You’ve got to be kidding me!” Owen groaned.

  “You’re not serious, are you?” Gwen asked.

  Only Toshiko choked down any reaction.

  “Do you expect me to leave the camp like it is?” Jack replied. “The trashed tents, our supplies, and everything else we brought?”

  “No, Jack,” three of them answered as one.

  Ianto remained silent. For him it was no question that they had to clear up the camp, the only question was how he was supposed to pack up. _Well, I’ll get through that, too._

  “Gwen. Ianto,” Jack said. “You’ll stay. Tosh. Owen. You’ll come with me.”

  “Oh, no!” Owen moaned.

  Jack shot a death glare in his direction and left the car. Toshiko was already outside, and Owen reluctantly followed her. Jack was just about to close the driver’s door when he saw Ianto reach for the door handle.

  “Ianto!” Jack snapped. “That was an order. You’ll stay.”

  “I need to pack the tents.”

  “The hell you do! You move a muscle and I’ll cuff you to the steering wheel.”

  Ianto froze. He knew that Jack would not hesitate to keep his promise. Behind him on the backseat Gwen could not suppress a chuckle. Jack glanced at her warningly and turned to leave but changed his mind and threw another look into the car.

  That was when Ianto dared to shift his position to get a little more comfortable.

  “What did I say?” Jack smirked, reaching behind his back. The horrified look standing in Ianto’s eyes now tore his heart apart. “I’m sorry, Ianto. That was a bad idea. I don’t even have handcuffs. See?” He held his empty hands out for him to see.

  “Bad joke,” Ianto hissed. “Bloody bad joke.”

  “I know. I couldn’t help myself.”

  “When can you?”

  Gwen decided that she should better get out of range and left the car on the passenger side.

  Jack looked rather sheepish. “Sorry. I didn’t think.”

  “Yeah? Seems to be a new sport…” Ianto mumbled and looked out of the side window.

  Being ignored like that Jack decided to go and he left to get started with the tent that was still partially standing.

  “That was a really bad idea, Jack Harkness,” he scolded himself. “Thoughtless and insensitive. No wonder he’s mad at me.”

  _Not mad, really,_ he realized as he bent down to the first tent peg. _He certainly is still in shock. We should look out for him. He did well in the crisis, but he’s obviously having trouble handling the aftermath._

  While he was working Jack let his mind wander. So he did not pay attention to movement to his left side, assuming it was Owen or Toshiko.

  “Hey, bastard!” a young but mercilessly cool voice startled Jack out of his thoughts. “Feel righteous having killed my parents?”

  Jack looked up at a man of barely twenty years. More frightening than the voice or the steely gaze the boy fixated him with, though, was the rifle in his hands.

  “Say your last prayer,” the boy hissed, taking aim.

  All Jack could do was stare at him incredulously. _Who’s that? And where are Tosh and Owen?_

  “No last words? Well, not my problem.”

  And with that the boy pulled the trigger. The load of pellets smashed into Jack’s stomach, throwing him into the grass on his back.

  “What the hell?!” Jack heard Owen shout like through thick fog. His vision blurred. He could see a dark shadow towering over him.

  A flash.

  Then he knew nothing anymore.

  “Jack?” Toshiko screamed and started to run to the tent where she had last seen him. From her right side Owen came running.

  The beep of the SUV’s horn cut through the silence that had followed the shot. While Toshiko stopped and turned to look at the car Owen kept running, never thinking of the fact that he was unarmed.

  “Owen!” Gwen shouted, trying to stop him.

  “Nobody moves!” someone yelled. “Stop! Or he’s dead!”

  All three of them froze in their tracks, turning to the man who had spoken. He stood on the driver’s side of the SUV, pulling a feebly struggling Ianto by his hair out of the car, holding a gun to his head.

  Ianto was terrified. So were Gwen, Toshiko, and Owen.

  Ianto could not see Jack anywhere and that scared him even more, especially as he had seen a flash behind the tent. The shot thundered and as their leader was not coming to their aid that could only mean that he was incapacitated, was injured or worse.

  None of them knew what to do.

  “Your friend’s dead,” a young man coming from behind the tent said. “Make a wrong move and you’re following him. Who’s got the keys?”

  _Keys?_

  They just looked at each other questioningly.

  “Of the car, guys. Who’s got the keys?”

  “Jack was driving,” Toshiko choked.

  “I see. Martin! Make sure they don’t try anything.”

  “Sure,” the other man grunted, wrapping his arm around Ianto’s neck to hold him tight and pressing the muzzle of his gun against the young man’s head.

  A moment later Gethin reappeared and marched over to Martin.

  “Thanks for the car,” he said, waving the keys at them. “Goodbye!” Smirking he reached for the handle of the right backdoor, pulling it open. “Come!” he yelled at his cousin and swung the driver’s door open, too.

  “Yeah, come,” Martin snarled and pulled Ianto with him.

  “No,” Ianto moaned. _Someone shoot the bastard! Jack!_ He was scared shitless. _If those men belong to the villagers… and take me with them… what’re they gonna do with me?_

  “Let Ianto go!” Owen shouted. “You have the car. You don’t need him to get away!”

  “Aah,” Gethin mused. “I think we should keep a hostage.”

  “No!” Toshiko yelled, stepping forward. “Not Ianto! Take me!”

  Ianto thought his heart would burst out of his chest it was beating so hard. _Not Tosh! They can’t take Tosh!_ But he could not object. The arm pressing on his throat choked every word he would try to say.

  Still his blue eyes burned with determination when he searched her gaze, pleading with her not to come closer. Toshiko, though, did not let herself be stopped.

  “What do you want with him?” she asked. “He’s useless. Well, he makes good coffee, but that’s it. I can hack any computer you want, break into security systems.”

  “Tosh!” Gwen gasped as she heard her offer her skills. Holding up his hand Owen tried to stop her.

  “I’ll go with you, help you free your folks. In return you’ll let me go then. That’s the deal.”

  Both men looked at each other, Gethin suspicious, Martin rather insecure but hopeful.

  “So what do you say?” Toshiko pushed. “Do we have a deal?”

  “No deals with my personnel without my permission!” a very familiar voice thundered across the clearing. “Let go of him or so help me god…”

  Everyone stared at Jack who strode toward them, his Webley raised, taking aim at Martin.

  The man holding Ianto started to tremble when he saw the captain cross the distance between tent and car. He had no doubt that he would shoot.

  “B-b-but you…” Gethin gasped and jerked his own gun up, ready to shoot.

  “Oh really?” Jack said, seeing the trigger finger pull back.

  Gethin was way too slow. For a second or two he stood unmoving, his eyes wide with surprise at the puncture hole between his eyes. Then he fell.

  Gwen and Toshiko shrieked.

  Martin pushed Ianto off himself, making him fall, and tried to hobble away.

  “Stop!” Jack barked and Martin did as he was told, holding up his hands in surrender. “Sit!” Martin did that, too.

  Shocked team Torchwood stood amidst the remains of their camp.

  Toshiko shook off her rigor and squatted down beside Ianto, wrapping her arms around him, and hugging him to her chest. Jack strode past them to tie Martin up. Gwen was shaking and searched for something to sit on, but could only sink down in the grass.

  Owen, though, looked rather angry when he approached Toshiko and Ianto.

  “Hey, teaboy!” the doctor snapped. “Why the _bloody_ hell did you let them into the car? That glass is bullet-proof! You could’ve just shut the fucking doors!”

  “And left the rest of you out there to get killed?” Ianto screamed back, almost sobbing and shaking in Toshiko’s hold.

  “Why are you picking on Ianto?” Toshiko growled. “It wasn’t his fault!”

  “No? Wasn’t it your fault, teaboy? You just had to shut the bloody door!”

  “If it had just been you, maybe I would have,” Ianto panted with sudden, unrestrained rage. “If only to keep you from screaming at me!” Painfully he gasped for breath. “But there were Jack and Tosh and Gwen to think about and… Jack?” Ianto’s head whipped around so suddenly that his neck cracked. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” the captain said, offering them a reassuring smile that grew to a smirk, “Remember? I’m not that easily _deleted_ …”

  Astonished he looked at four shocked faces.

  “Hey, it’s okay. I’m alive and well. No worries, okay?”

  “Yeah, Jack,” Toshiko murmured. “It’s just that he… he said, he shot you.”

  “Ah, well, he certainly thought he did.” Jack smirked. Still he felt them eyeing him up and down, from head to toe, for an injury. There was some blood in his hair, but other than that there was no indication of him being wounded. “Okay, guys,” Jack said. “I want you to make yourselves comfortable here. I’m gonna call Detective Inspector Morrison and then pack up our stuff.”

  They groaned. It was clear what they thought, _Not the police again._ But they were left no choice. The police would have to pick up Martin, too.

  “I’ll help you,” Toshiko offered.

  “Thanks, Tosh, but I’d rather you’d stay with Ianto.” Encouragingly he nodded at them. Then his gaze fixed on Owen. “Maybe you want to help me?”

  It was phrased as a question, but the tone was commanding, and Owen knew better than to disobey. Something told him that if they were not all so utterly shattered right now he would be getting his ears blistered with a lecture for picking a fight with the teaboy.

  “Sure,” he grumbled.

  The doctor was left a short reprieve while Jack made the call, but then they started to collect their equipment and stuff it into the SUV.

 

xXx

 

  Detective Inspector Morrison was remarkably courteous for a local copper playing host to a group of Special Ops investigators who kept dropping corpses and casualties in his lap without a proper reason for being on his patch. By the time Jack and Owen had finished loading the SUV, he had completed his interviews with Toshiko and Gwen, and was chatting with Ianto in the warmth of his police car. Owen sat in the SUV with the girls, still sulking about being made to help pack up the campsite. He honestly would have preferred a lecture.

  Jack stood leaning against the back of the SUV, trying to look like he was not keeping an eye on Ianto, but once the ambulance left with the corpse of Gethin Sherman and the police car took Martin Llewelyn away it became increasingly difficult to play the disinterested bystander. Concern was eating away at Jack and so he withstood the urge to join the others in the SUV as well as watching over Ianto too unashamedly. When Morrison got out of the driver’s side of his car and frantically waved him over, though, he gave up all pretence of minding his own business and took off running.

  “What’s wrong?” Jack panted, breathless not from the run but his worry for his youngest team member.

  “I’m not sure, Captain,” Morrison replied. “I think I touched a subject he got pretty upset over, but, well, I think, is not allowed to talk about.”

  “I see,” Jack murmured, not really seeing through yet, and ducked into the car. “Ianto?”

  The young man sat in the passenger seat, staring blankly out in the distance. He had his arms wrapped around his body, his hands clutching at the fabric of the jacket they had found in the remaining equipment. It should warm him, but Ianto still was shivering violently.

  _Whatever it was, it has shaken him badly._ Jack was not sure about what to do. Over his shoulder he glanced at Morrison, contemplating asking him what he had tried to talk about but deciding against it.

  “Ianto?” he softly asked. “What happened? How can I help you?”

  There was no reply.

  Feeling the urge to make it better by reassuring contact Jack murmured, “May I touch you?”

  Once more he got no answer.

  Uncertain about what he should do or say Jack just sat in the driver’s seat rather helplessly.

  Suddenly Ianto sucked in a breath that seemed to catch in his throat painfully. His blue eyes brimmed with tears and his bottom lip trembled. His breathing became erratic and he started to rock forward and back.

  Now Jack could not hold himself back. Comfortingly his arms wrapped around Ianto, pulling him close. He felt a shudder run through the younger man’s body. A sob escaped between hard gasps and Jack reflexively hugged him tighter. It was an attempt to reassure Ianto of his presence and Jack found himself crooning softly.

  _Oh, dear…_

  “It’s okay, Ianto,” he murmured. “You’re safe. Nothing bad will happen. I promise. I’ll take care of you and the others. You have my word.”

  Still Ianto could not stop himself from quivering, tremor after tremor coursing through him.

  “Ianto?”

  No response.

  “I’m so sorry, Ianto,” Jack whispered. “All this wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m so sorry. Really.”

  “…you were dead.”

  Jack only got half of what Ianto whispered so lowly and tonelessly that he was not sure at first if he heard something at all.

  “You thought he shot me?” he choked and sensed Ianto nod. “Oh, c’mon,” he hugged him closer. “I’m okay. No harm done.”

  “The blood,” Ianto rasped, pulling back from Jack’s hold and fixating his captain with a scrutinizing gaze that was so intense that it was all Jack could do not to flinch. “All… that blood and… there’s not even a scratch.”

  _How perceptive!_ Now Jack returned the stare. _None of the others said anything. Did they just not notice? Okay, Gwen knows, but the others would wonder…_

  “He missed me. I’m sure he said he shot me because he wanted to scare you to gain the upper hand.” Jack smiled reassuringly, he hoped.

  Still he could not chase the anxiety from Ianto’s beautiful features. His face contorted with emotional pain and he struggled to say something. The words caught in the young man’s tightening throat.

  Then Jack shuddered.

  For just a split second he had seen something in Ianto’s stunning blue eyes that he had always hoped to see.

  Love.

  Desire.

  Longing.

  Then it was gone again and Jack felt a strange emptiness try and suffocate him. Ianto turned away from him. His breathing had slowed down again and he was not shaking like a leaf anymore.

  _It’s simply too much for him,_ Jack thought. _We should get the hell out of here._

  “Wait a moment,” he murmured, retreated out of the car and walked around the front to open the passenger door for Ianto. Without further ado the young Welshman got up. When he stood beside Jack his face was an unreadable mask.

  “Detective Inspector Morrison,” Jack said. “It’s time. We need to get back to Cardiff. Are we free to go?”

  Morrison considered his request for a moment, and finally nodded. Captain Harkness probably had the clout to get away with telling him to bugger off, but he and his team had been quite helpful. A little professional courtesy was in order.

  “Right, you go on then,” Morrison agreed. “But I would appreciate it if you and Dr. Harper would each make a statement about this incident at some point in the near future. We can do that by phone in the next day or so if you like and then, you can sign them along with the other statements I am sending to Cardiff Police HQ.”

  “We can do that,” Jack agreed. “Goodbye.”

  Morrison nodded and watched the captain lead Ianto to the SUV and manoeuvre him into the passenger seat there. Then the captain climbed in on the driver’s side and off they went.

  It was a silent ride.

  No one felt like talking at all and so they sat, for once content with Jack driving, and tried to relax. Gwen leaned against Owen, her head resting on his shoulder and was slowly dozing off. Owen only stared out through the windshield, willing Cardiff to show up on the horizon as soon as possible. And Toshiko laid her forehead against the cool side window.

  Ianto looked like he was asleep, but Jack was not sure about that. Sure, he was exhausted, but he also was agitated and so sleep would not come easily. Right now, though, Jack did not want to push any of them. He was glad to have them all here in the car, safe and sound.

  _It could’ve turned out so much worse._ Jack shuddered. _I don’t want to think about how much worse._

  He slowed a little down as he spotted a derelict vehicle sitting in the field off to the side of the road. As he cruised by, he heard Owen grunt.

  “Hey!” Owen suddenly exclaimed. “Wasn’t that the lunch van where we ate yesterday?”

  “Looked like it,” Jack confirmed, picking up speed. “Tosh, can you patch me through to DI Morrison? I forgot to ask him something.”

  “Shit! And I was hoping to get a decent burger for lunch.”

  “Ugh,” Toshiko and Gwen moaned at the same time with disgust at the imagination of meat.

  _Dr. Harper needs to prove how tough he is again, huh?_ Ianto thought, but kept his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. His stomach rolled unpleasantly and he wished to fall asleep to be relieved of the throbbing pain in his head and the dull ache throughout his body.

  “Yeah, a burger,” Owen insisted. “I’m hungry.”

  “Try a salad,” Toshiko groaned. “Or a spring roll.”

  “Vegetarian pizza,” Gwen suggested sleepily.

  “Lentil stew,” Jack said.

  “Baked potatoes with sour cream,” Ianto murmured without as much as opening his eyes.

  “Spaghetti with oil, garlic, and chili.”

  “Sweet potato casserole.”

  The suggestions came rolling and Owen rolled his eyes with exasperation.

  Behind the steering wheel Jack listened with half an ear to the conversation as he waited for his call to ring through to the inspector, and he could not help but smirk. This sounded like them joining up against the doctor… and a little like a team. So maybe something good would come out of the disaster in the end.

  They were battered, shaken, exhausted, and sick, but not beaten. Jack drove them home to their base with a hopeful heart, looking forward to them becoming the team he always dreamed of.

 

**_The End_ **


End file.
